THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


STEPHEN  GREENE 
MEMORIES   OF   HIS   LIFE 


STEPHEN  GREENE 


MEMORIES    OF    HIS    LIFE 

WITH 

ADDRESSES,  RESOLUTIONS  AND  OTHER 
TRIBUTES  OF  AFFECTION 


PRINTED   FOR  PRIVATE   DISTRIBUTION 
1903 


In  putting  pen  to  paper  the  heart  kept  insisting  that  sen- 
tences should  fashion  themselves  in  fraternal  familiarity.  It 
is  a  little  sketch ;  but  with  these  glimpses  and  suggestive  hints, 
supplemented  as  they  are  by  memorial  addresses  and  letters  of 
appreciation,  it  is  hoped  that  the  reader  may  easily  fill  out  the 
larger  life. 

BENJAMIN  A.  GREENE 
Evanston,  November,  1902 


1232706 


ANCESTRAL    LINE 


"  God  plants  us  where  we  grow" 


ANCESTRAL   LINE 

Providence,  R.  I.,  was  founded  by  Roger  Wil- 
liams, in  1636.  Three  years  later  Richard  Smith  had 
built  a  trading-post  near  the  present  village  of  Wick- 
ford,  R.  I.,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  Indian 
princes  and  people,  improved  a  large  tract  of  land. 
Living  in  his  family  was  John  Greene,  the  first  of 
"  the  Quidnesset  Greenes."  Nothing  is  known 
of  his  previous  history.  It  is  supposed  that  he 
came  with  Smith  from  Gloucestershire,  England. 
There  were  two  other  men  of  the  same  name  set- 
tled in  Rhode  Island  about  this  time,  John  Greene 
of  Newport,  and  a  surgeon,  John  Greene,  who  set- 
tled in  Warwick,  the  first  of  the  "Warwick  Greenes," 
to  which  family  General  Nathaniel  Greene  belonged. 
With  these  two  John  Greene  of  Quidnesset  probably 
had  no  family  relationship. 

John,  Benjamin,  John,  three  generations,  remained 
in  the  original  district;  but  Thomas,  of  the  fourth 
generation,  in  1765  settled  near  what  is  now  called 
Shannock  Mills.  In  this  vicinity  lived  John,  Allen, 
Stephen,  representing  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
generations.  They  were  all  tillers  of  the  soil ;  but 
Allen  served  in  the  army  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
and  was  a  pensioner  when  he  died,  in  1 833.  Stephen 
married  Susan  Johnson,  a  school  teacher  of  North 


io  STEPHEN    GREENE 

Kingston,  in  1815,  and  in  1816  moved  to  Killingly, 
Conn.,  where  he  hired  and  managed  a  small  farm  for 
a  number  of  years.  It  was  here  that  Alvin  Greene, 
father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  born,  Decem- 
ber 12,  1820.  As  farming  was  meagerly  remunera- 
tive, it  was  decided,  when  the  older  children  were 
large  enough  to  work  in  the  cotton-mill,  to  move 
to  Lippitt,  R.  I. 


HEREDITY:    EARLY  TRAITS 


"Thy  father  and  thy  mother  shall  be  glad,  and  she 
that  bare  tbee  shall  rejoice" — PROVERBS. 

"Here  and  there  a  cotter1 s  babe  is  royal  born  by  right 
divine. ' '  —  TENNYSON. 

"//  has  always  been  my  greatest  desire  and  earnest 
prayer  that  all  my  boys  may  be  earnest  and  working 
Christians."  —  MOTHER,  1 867. 

"  The  entire  man  is  to  be  found  in  the  cradle  of  the 
child." — DE  TOCQUEVILLE. 

Aristippus,  after  shipwreck,  saw  a  circle  marked  on 
the  beach,  and  said,  "Let  us  be  of  good  cheer;  I  see 
mind." 


HEREDITY:    EARLY   TRAITS 

Cotton  manufacturing  was  beginning  to  attract 
families  away  from  the  farms.  Along  the  Pawtuxet 
River  a  number  of  factory  villages  were  rising. 
This  village  life  brought  in  new  social  conditions. 
At  first  all  the  help  was  American.  Better  schools 
began  to  prevail.  Churches  grew  into  more  flour- 
ishing organizations. 

It  was  into  this  village  life  that  father  was  intro- 
duced when  he  was  old  enough  to  take  a  finishing 
term  of  common  school,  and  begin  in  the  carding- 
room  to  learn  his  trade.  His  father  was  an  ordinary 
working-man,  robust  in  health  except  at  the  last;  a 
devout,  intelligent  Christian,  a  good  talker  in  con- 
ference meeting,  and  having  the  respect  of  all.  His 
mother  was  more  ambitious;  she  had  something 
of  the  Roman  make-up  in  her  appearance,  remain- 
ing as  straight  as  an  arrow  until  her  eighty -seventh 
year,  priding  herself  not  a  little  on  the  additional 
touch  of  culture  which  she  received  in  her  youth  at 
school,  and  in  her  girlhood  shopping  excursions  to 
Newport. 

Father  "topped  cards"  in  company  with  "the 
Knight  boys,"  who  afterward  came  to  own  a  very 
large  share  of  the  mill  property  of  Rhode  Island. 
He  had  the  devout  spirit  of  his  father,  and  the 

13 


i4  STEPHEN    GREENE 

ambition  of  his  mother,  to  make  the  most  of  himself. 
He  could  not  go  further  in  school  life,  and  long 
hours  in  the  mill  prevented  much  study,  but  he 
used  his  spare  time  in  reading,  and  exercised  his 
gifts  in  the  debating  society  and  in  the  meetings 
of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Phenix,  where  he  early 
became  a  member.  One  of  the  deep  pleasures  of 
his  after  years  was  recounting  sermons  he  heard  in 
those  early  days,  and  giving  particulars  of  memora- 
ble debates,  at  the  village  store  and  in  the  hall. 

May  2,  1 842,  when  he  was  overseer  of  the  card- 
ing-room  at  Harrisville,  he  married  Maria  Arnold, 
the  daughter  of  Hervy  Arnold,  a  cabinet-maker. 
She  was  a  weaver  in  the  mill,  as  were  all  her  sisters. 
I  have  now  in  my  desk,  for  every-day  use,  a  small 
pair  of  scissors  which  she  used  over  sixty  years  ago 
in  the  weave-shop.  That  work  would  compare  now 
with  stenography  and  typewriting.  She  had  the 
advantage  of  a  private  school  at  Lonsdale  for  a 
short  time.  She  was  very  conscientious,  quiet,  un- 
demonstrative, practical,  the  incarnation  of  common 
sense,  profound  in  her  religious  feeling.  She,  also, 
was  a  member  of  the  Phenix  Church. 

When  the  new  mill  was  to  be  started  at  Hope, 
father  was  recommended  by  David  Whitman,  the 
pioneer  mill  engineer  of  the  times,  as  the  best  man 
to  have  charge  of  the  carding;  and  he  began  work 
there  in  August,  1846.  It  was  a  beautiful  stone 
mill,  a  model  of  its  kind.  Everything  was  to  be 
first-class,  and  everything  in  its  proper  place.  One 


HEREDITY:    EARLY   TRAITS  15 

can  easily  imagine  what  impressions  were  made  upon 
this  ambitious  young  man  by  promotion  in  the 
midst  of  such  fine  conditions.  He  had  come  to  be 
a  modest  leader  in  outside  circles  as  well.  He  was 
superintendent  of  a  Sunday  school,  held  in  a  small 
hall  built  over  the  trench  near  the  main  gate,  and 
also  a  teacher  of  a  singing  class.  At  this  time  he 
took  special  pains  to  strengthen  his  lungs,  often 
stepping  out  in  the  air  and  inflating  them  to  the 
full.  His  mother  had  a  cough  for  years.  His  three 
brothers  and  only  sister  died  with  consumption.  I 
was  born  in  Harrisville,  November  6,  1845.  Susan, 
the  next  child,  was  born  at  Hope,  February  a,  1848, 
and  died  June  30,  1850.  Our  home  was  half  of  the 
small  house,  nearest  the  mill,  in  the  lower  row  down 
from  the  main  street,  very  close  to  what  was  called 
the  "  tub  wheel,"  an  extra  wheel  in  the  lower  trench 
to  help  eke  out  the  power.  The  noise  of  it,  as  I 
used  to  try  to  sleep  afternoons  on  the  parlor  floor, 
rumbles  in  my  ears  to-day.  Grandfather  and  Grand- 
mother Arnold,  with  their  four  unmarried  daughters, 
lived  on  the  other  side,  in  the  cottage.  Think  of 
the  environment :  The  new  mill ;  leadership  reach- 
ing out  into  Sunday  school  and  singing ;  a  good 
start,  suggesting  financial  possibilities  ;  domestic  life 
deepened  by  sorrow  into  richer  tone  and  coloring. 
Into  this  nest  of  a  home  Stephen  came,  Septem- 
ber 27,  1851. 

Every  remembrance  of  him,  as  far  back  as  my 
memory  goes,  is  that  he  was  a  bundle  of  life  and 


16  STEPHEN    GREENE 

"  musical  force."  For  before  he  could  walk,  while 
creeping  on  the  floor,  he  would  "  hum  the  airs  " 
which  he  had  heard.  This  was  a  delightful  discovery 
to  father  who  never  wearied  of  coaxing  him  along 
into  greater  proficiency.  Well  do  I  remember  their 
voices  blending  in  that  melody,  newer  then  than 
now,  "  Down  in  the  cornfield,  Hear  that  mournful 
sound."  A  friend  writes :  "  The  first  impression 
of  him  I  remember  was  hearing  him  sing,  c  I  '11  awake 
at  dawn  on  the  Sabbath  Day,'  before  he  could  speak 
plainly,  but  he  carried  the  tune  all  right." 

He  was  a  leader  from  the  start.  While  yet  a  little 
fellow  he  would  get  Aunt  Sally,  who  was  indeed 
proud  to  be  a  sort  of  a  second  mother,  to  tie  in 
front  of  him  a  round  fig-box  for  a  drum,  and  then, 
with  paper  soldier-caps  on,  we  would  march ;  and  I  am 
told  that  I  took  my  place  in  the  rear,  as  though  it  was 
foreordained,  meekly  following  the  "  rub-a-dub-dub  " 
of  the  younger  brother. 

Stephen  could  not  be  over-petted,  for  two  baby 
brothers  came  in  quick  succession ;  Albert  was  born 
in  April,  1853,  and  Alvin  in  June,  1854.  In  Septem- 
ber of  the  latter  year  father  leased  a  small  mill  in 
North  Scituate,  at  "  The  Island,"  about  a  mile  from 
what  was  called  the  "  Four  Corners."  There  we 
removed,  and  grandfather's  family  too,  for  in  these 
first  two  places  they  were  part  and  parcel  of  our 
family  life.  It  was  here,  in  the  early  part  of  the 
year  1856,  that  Aunt  Emily  taught  him  his  let- 
ters in  one  day.  That  summer  he  attended  his  first 


HEREDITY:    EARLY   TRAITS          17 

school,  taught  by  Caroline  Hopkins,  and  learned  to 
spell  words  of  four  and  five  syllables.  It  was  dur- 
ing this  first  term  that  he  spoke  his  first  piece,  with 
such  confidence  and  vivacity,  with  head  so  erect, 
that  it  is  remembered  to  this  day  by  his  aunts : 

" 1  'm  going  to  California, 
As  smart  as  any  man, 
To  dig  among  the  shining  gold, 
For  I  am  sure  I  can." 

The  manufacturing  enterprise  had  just  got  well 
started  when  a  disastrous  fire,  in  September  of  that 
year,  burned  the  mill.  The  savings  of  years  went 
up  in  smoke;  other  years  were  mortgaged  to  pay 
indebtedness.  This  was  a  crisis  experience.  Father 
said  he  often  had  visions  before  that  of  one  day 
being  a  rich  man;  but  when  he  came  home  from 
a  visit,  and  saw  the  acreage  of  burned  cloth,  and  the 
old  wooden  wheel  turning  in  the  midst  of  desola- 
tion, he  made  up  his  mind  his  vision  could  never 
be  realized,  and  he  would  settle  down  and  raise 
a  family  of  boys  for  after  usefulness. 

It  is  idle  to  conjecture  what  might  have  happened 
if  there  had  been  no  fire,  and  we  had  been  anchored 
in  that  quiet  community  by  a  little  financial  success. 
Father  was  jostled  out  into  the  larger  world,  with 
a  corrected  judgment,  feeling  the  absolute  need 
of  economy,  and  realizing  that  everything,  except 
that  which  is  wrought  into  character,  may  take  to 
itself  wings  and  fly  away. 


i8  STEPHEN    GREENE 

In  October,  1856,  we  moved  to  Yarmouth,  Maine. 
The  Libby  Brothers,  Portland,  hired  father  as  super- 
intendent of  a  small  mill,  where  they  made  cotton 
yarn,  wrapping-twine,  and  batting.  Here,  during 
the  next  two  summers,  Stephen  attended  the  dis- 
trict school,  and  in  the  winter  between,  a  private 
school  kept  by  Miss  Bisbee  over  her  father's  store. 
Another  brother  came  into  the  home,  Ray  W.,  in 
July,  1857.  Soon  after,  also,  Aunt  Sarah  Greene, 
with  Susie,  our  "cousin  sister,"  came  to  be  with  us 
for  a  while.  Our  home  would  not  be  what  it  was 
with  them  left  out;  blessed  helps  both  of  them. 
Church  privileges  were  better  than  ever  before.  At 
that  time  in  Yarmouth  there  was  a  law  that  no  chil- 
dren under  nine  years  could  attend  the  district  school 
in  the  winter;  so  in  the  fall  of  1858  father  let  Stephen 
do  what  a  little  fellow  could  do  in  the  yarn-room. 
In  his  "Autobiography,"  to  which  I  will  refer  later, 
he  says :  "  I  had  a  very  light  job,  working  about 
as  I  had  a  mind  to,  as  I  was  quite  young.  This 
was  the  first  regular  work  I  was  ever  put  to,  outside 
of  doing  chores  around  the  house."  There  surely 
were  chores  to  do  in  a  family  of  five  boys,  where 
most  of  the  time  there  was  no  hired  girl  to  help 
the  mother.  Those  were  days  of  hard  work  and  the 
most  rigid  economy ;  and  yet,  the  sweets  and  the 
joys  and  the  hopes  of  a  Christian  home  were  never 
absent ;  "  plain  living  and  high  thinking,"  as  Words- 
worth puts  it. 


THE  WHITE  ROCK  HOME:     GROW- 
ING TO   MANHOOD 


"  This  book  of  the  law  shall  not  depart  out  of  thy 
mouth  ;  but  tbou  shall  meditate  therein  day  and  night, 
that  tbou  mayest  observe  to  do  according  to  all  that  is 
written  therein  :  for  then  tbou  shall  make  thy  way  pros- 
perous, and  then  tbou  shall  have  good  success." — JOSHUA. 

"  The  hues  thai  our  to-morrows  wear 

Are  by  our  yesterdays  forecast ; 
Our  future  takes  into  itself 

The  true  impressions  of  our  past." 

"  The  choice  young  man's  life  is  bound  to  be  a  life  of 
vision" — PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 

«« '  T  is  hope  that  feeds  ibe  larger  half  of  man." 

— SOPHOCLES. 

"  In  conversation  boldness  now  bears  sway. 

But  know  that  nothing  can  so  foolish  be 
As  empty  boldness  ;  therefore,  first  essay 
To  stuff  thy  mind  with  solid  bravery  ; 

Then  march  on  gallant :  get  substantial  worth : 
Boldness  gilds  finely,  and  will  set  it  forth." 

— GEORGE  HERBERT. 


THE  WHITE  ROCK   HOME:    GROWING 
TO  MANHOOD 

Though  friends  were  very  pleasant  in  Yarmouth, 
relatives  and  old  home  associations  were  distant  in 
Rhode  Island,  and  it  was  with  great  delight  that  we 
moved,  January  1 1, 1 859,10  White  Rock  in  that  state. 
Father  had  been  hired  as  superintendent  by  Babcock 
&  Morse.  This  was  a  village  with  a  brick  cotton- 
mill  of  ten  thousand  spindles.  Directly  across  the 
street  was  a  brick  store  in  the  middle  of  a  row  of 
twelve  double  wooden  houses,  exactly  alike,  and 
well  yarded  in.  At  the  entrance  of  the  village  there 
were  a  neat-looking  school  building  on  one  side,  and 
a  large  boarding-house  on  the  other.  An  ideal 
factory  village.  The  broad  street  was  soon  after 
lined  with  maple  and  elm.  Each  yard  had  room 
for  a  little  garden,  and  back  of  this  rose  a  hill  of 
oak  and  chestnut.  In  front,  across  the  well-kept 
street,  there  were  first,  meadows  to  mow,  and  be- 
yond, the  sweep  of  the  river.  This  little  nook  of  a 
place  was  about  two  miles  distant  from  Westerly, 
where  were  to  be  found  churches,  stores,  post-office, 
doctors,  railway  station,  academy,  and  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Pawtuxet  River. 

The  inhabitants  were  mostly  American,  with  a 
dash  of  typical  Irish,  English,  and  Scotch.  This 


22  STEPHEN    GREENE 

variety  in  the  village,  together  with  the  odd  speci- 
mens dotting  the  fringe  of  its  life,  furnished  ample 
fund  for  story,  joke,  and  hearty  laugh.  The  larger 
part  were  church-going  people.  There  was  a  Sun- 
day school  in  a  vacant  tenement  at  nine  o'clock,  and 
we  boys  who  were  old  enough  would  walk  to 
Westerly,  with  quite  a  little  pilgrim  band,  to  church. 
Father  and  Uncle  Hiram  Arnold,  who  had 
charge  of  the  store  and  kept  the  books  of  the  com- 
pany, had  the  use  of  the  company's  two-seated 
carriage.  One  of  the  younger  boys  would  some- 
times be  tucked  in  by  the  side  of  mother.  The 
afternoons  were  usually  spent  at  home.  In  summer 
we  were  allowed  to  take  a  quiet  stroll  in  the  woods; 
this  was  appreciated,  especially  when  we  had 
worked  in  the  mill  all  the  week.  In  the  evening 
we  had  prayer-meeting  maintained  by  those  in  the 
village,  unless,  as  was  sometimes  the  case,  Elder 
Lewis,  of  the  Minor  Meeting  House,  came 
down  and  preached  late  in  the  afternoon.  We  boys 
remembered  well  Captain  Pendleton,  the  mill 
watchman,  who  used  to  come  in  late,  set  his  lantern 
down  in  the  outer  room,  then  take  a  back  seat  on 
the  north  side.  After  the  opening  exercises  he 
would  be  the  first  to  kneel  in  prayer.  He  began 
very  quietly,  kept  increasing  in  intensity  of  feeling 
and  loudness  of  tone  until  he  very  nearly  lost  his 
breath;  but  he  always  convinced  us  boys  that 
he  found  and  sheltered  himself  in  the  very  heart  of 
God.  Uncle  Hiram  was  the  usual  leader.  Father 


THE    WHITE    ROCK    HOME  23 

always  took  part.  Their  uniform  sincerity,  together 
with  the  simple,  genuine  testimony  of  the  humble 
mill  folk,  brought  to  bear  upon  us  boys  a  steady 
pressure  toward  the  kingdom.  The  singing  for 
these  meetings  was  helped  by  a  singing  school  held 
in  the  village  during  winter  evenings.  Vocal  music 
was  always  one  of  the  chief  features  of  the  social 
gatherings  of  the  place. 

We  moved  into  No.  12,  the  south  side  of  the 
house,  just  north  of  the  store.  The  first  two  years 
Stephen  attended  the  district  school.  In  the  spring 
of  1 86 1  he  was  placed  in  the  spinning-room,  as 
father  had  adopted  the  plan  that  his  boys  should 
work  half  the  time.  In  1862  Stephen  again  attended 
the  district  school,  and  had  James  M.  Collins  for 
teacher.  He  took  care  of  the  school-house,  built 
fires,  and  sometimes  assisted  in  hearing  the  lower 
classes  recite.  Young  as  he  was,  he  took  a  leading 
part  in  preparing  for  an  exhibition,  which  netted 
eight  dollars.  With  this  sum  was  purchased  a  Pro- 
nouncing Gazetteer  for  the  use  of  the  school.  In 
April,  1863,  he  was  again  at  work  in  the  spinning- 
room.  It  was  in  this  year  that  Emma,  our  two- 
year-old  sister,  died,  in  October — a  sorrow  we  boys 
all  felt.  In  September,  1864,  he  again  returned  to 
the  district  school,  then  taught  by  Charlotte  Maxson. 
He  also  resumed  taking  care  of  the  school-house. 
At  the  close  of  the  village  term,  as  he  found  the 
village  school  did  not  meet  his  needs  he  went  to  the 
Westerly  High  School,  a  private  institution,  with 


24  STEPHEN   GREENE 

A.  J.  Foster  as  principal,  and  occupying  American 
Hall  on  High  Street.  Every  Westerly  boy  who 
came  under  Principal  Foster's  instruction  will  carry 
vivid  remembrances  of  his  unique,  hearty,  forceful 
personality :  he  was  lacking  in  order  and  neatness  ; 
he  would  burst  now  and  then  into  spasmodic  asser- 
tion of  authority,  and  then  lapse  into  indulgent 
familiarity;  yet,  blunt, without  dignity  and  method, 
uncouth,  as  he  seemingly  had  to  be,  he  was  a  great 
inspiration  to  those  who  had  a  mind  to  learn,  and  a 
heart  to  feel  his  inner  largeness  and  sincerity.  It 
was  not  altogether  in  the  routine  instruction  that  he 
gave;  he  was  always  running  over  with  quaint 
remarks ;  he  had  an  eye  and  an  ear  and  a  sensitive 
soul  for  lessons  that  were  flashing  forth  from  every 
page  of  the  text-book,  and  from  every  nook  and 
cranny  of  daily  life.  He  was  a  big  boy-friend  with 
a  streak  of  genius  in  him ;  at  heart  devout,  musical 
to  his  finger  tips.  Stephen  says  :  "  I  attended  here 
about  a  year,  in  the  mean  time  taking  up  algebra, 
natural  philosophy,  analysis  of  the  English  language, 
book-keeping,  in  connection  with  other  English 
branches.  After  becoming  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Foster,  I  was  always  on  very  intimate  terms  with 
him,  and  with  all  his  peculiarities  (and  he  had  them), 
I  liked  him,  and  considered  him  an  excellent  teacher. 
On  two  or  three  occasions  I  accompanied  him  to 
help  survey  some  land,  and  thus  learned  a  little  of 
the  practical  part  of  surveying."  He  was  selected 
to  make  the  presentation  speech  when  the  school 


THE   WHITE    ROCK    HOME  25 

gave  their  teacher  a  silver  pitcher,  December  25, 
1865. 

It  was  while  attending  Foster's  school  that  he 
became  a  Christian.  Let  me  continue  to  quote 
Stephen's  words  :  "  The  next  winter,  in  January  and 
February  of  1866,  a  religious  interest  commenced 
in  some  of  the  churches  of  Westerly,  and  among 
them  the  First  Baptist  Church,  of  which  father, 
mother,  and  brother  Benjamin  were  members.  I 
attended  some  of  the  evening  meetings  that  were 
held  there,  and  under  the  influence  of  these  services 
and  of  friends  who  talked  to  me,  and  I  trust  also 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  my  heart,  I  was 
led  to  realize  my  condition  as  a  sinner,  and  was  led 
to  give  my  heart  to  Jesus,  and  commenced  to  try  to 
live  a  life  of  piety." 

Some  of  the  friends  he  refers  to  were  his  school- 
mates at  Westerly.  Those  who  have  communicated 
with  me  speak  of  Stephen  as  attractive,  vivacious, 
manly.  "All  the  girls  liked  Stephen."  "Among  all 
you  boys  he  was  spokesman."  The  assistant  teacher 
remembers  now  what  "  a  pleasure  it  was  to  know 
him,  he  was  so  frank  and  sincere."  His  religious 
awakening  was  characterized,  "  not  by  haste,  but  by 
deliberation  of  choice ;  and  his  after  life  shows  it  was 
governed  by  the  choice." 

He  was  baptized  March  18,  1866,  by  Rev.  Fred- 
erick Dennison,  the  pastor,  in  the  old  canal,  now  filled 
up,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  as  one  goes  from  Wes- 
terly to  Stillmanville.  In  referring  to  the  little  meet- 


26  STEPHEN    GREENE 

ings  held  in  White  Rock,  just  after  joining  the 
church,  Stephen  writes  a  sentence  which  proved  to 
be  a  prophecy,  fulfilling  itself  in  more  and  more 
splendid  fruitfulness  up  to  the  last  week  of  his  life: 
"  These  meetings  I  attended  regularly,  and  generally 
took  some  part.  I  formed  a  resolution  soon  after  I 
was  converted  to  make  it  a  matter  of  principle  to 
help  sustain  religious  meetings  of  this  character  when- 
ever it  should  be  my  privilege  to  attend  them." 

It  may  seem  a  gloomy  eclipse  of  this  bright  life, 
prospering  in  school,  winning  delightful  friends, 
dedicating  his  career  to  Christian  fidelity  and  hope- 
fulness, to  record  the  fact  that  on  the  very  next  day 
after  he  was  baptized  he  again  entered  the  mill  to 
work.  It  was  always  a  hard  experience  the  first 
week.  Cotton  dust,  oily  atmosphere,  the  clatter  of 
machinery,  and  especially  the  confinement,  had  their 
depressing,  sometimes  sickening,  effect.  But  that 
was  the  life  in  which  we  were  brought  up,  and  in 
which  the  most  of  those  we  knew  were  living  and 
working.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  a 
mill  boy  had  no  good  times.  There  were  pleasant 
friendships  inside  factory  walls.  There  were  genu- 
ine, intelligent  people,  who  kept  well  informed  upon 
current  events.  While  working  in  the  spinning- 
room  as  "doffer"  and  "spare  hand"  Stephen  could 
have  a  run  out  once  in  a  while  into  the  air  and  the 
sunshine.  Well  do  I  remember  what  a  treat  it  was 
to  be  allowed  to  take  the  empty  pail  and  go  under 
the  trees  in  opening  spring,  when  the  leaves  and  the 


THE  FIRST  BAPTIST  MEETING-HOUSE,  WESTERLY,  R.  I. 


THE   WHITE   ROCK    HOME  27 

birds  were  just  returning,  walk  along  the  path  to  the 
old  well-curb  at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  store. 
We  did  not  rush.  The  empty  pail  one  way,  the 
full  pail  the  other,  was  our  passport,  and  we  got  all 
the  enjoyment  we  could  on  the  round  trip.  Some- 
times the  pail  would  hang  at  the  well,  catching  the 
last  drops  from  the  bucket,  while  we  jumped  the 
fence,  darted  in  at  the  back  door,  and  got  a  bite  of 
whatever  mother  was  cooking  that  was  portable. 

Swimming  at  "the  sand  bar"  and  at  the  "dam" 
was  the  luxury  in  warm  weather;  while  skating  on 
the  trench  and  on  the  pond  above  was  the  exhila- 
rating delight  of  winter.  There  were  parties  after 
the  mill  hours,  of  Arcadian  simplicity.  There  were 
trips  to  "  the  Bridge,"  as  Westerly  used  to  be  called, 
to  the  stores,  and  entertainments;  and  now  and 
then  a  day  off  for  an  excursion  to  Watch  Hill,  or 
Noyes  Beach.  And  because  White  Rock  was  such 
a  beautiful  place,  not  a  few  fine  turnouts  would  find 
their  way  thither.  Schuyler  Colfax,  vice-president 
during  Lincoln's  first  term,  honored  the  factory  with 
a  visit. 

Stephen  was  of  a  somewhat  different  build  from 
the  rest  of  us  boys.  He  had  a  differently  shaped 
head,  lighter  hair,  straighter  backbone.  He  took 
after  his  Grandmother  Greene  in  this  last  respect; 
and  he  also  had  her  liking  for  fine  things  and  a  ten- 
dency to  indulge  in  high  ideas.  When  a  little  fellow 
he  would  say  he  wanted  to  be  a  big  man  and  have 
lots  of  money,  and  do  what  he  pleased  with  it. 


28  STEPHEN    GREENE 

Father  and  mother  in  earlier  days  had  a  fear  that 
Stephen  saw  too  large  a  vision.  Even  grandmother, 
with  us  as  one  of  the  family,  once  took  him  to  task 
when  he  was  indulging  in  roseate  boyish  dreams, 
by  saying,  "You  know,  Stephen,  that  boys  who 
go  in  at  the  big  end  of  the  horn  come  out  of  the 
little  end."  He  replied  in  an  instant,  "  No,  I  won't; 
I  '11  wiggle  around  and  come  out  at  the  same  end." 
When  he  made  his  appearance  in  Westerly  first  as 
a  schoolboy,  there  were  mischievous  urchins  who 
saw  only  his  large  front  teeth,  and  they  called  him 
"Tombstones."  This  disturbed  him,  but  did  not 
prevent  him  winning  his  way  easily  to  the  highest 
esteem.  He  was  considerably  annoyed  at  the  time, 
and  more  highly  amused  afterward,  at  another  ex- 
perience in  having  titles  hurled  at  him.  I  presume 
his  straightness  and  beautiful  face  provoked  a  less 
favored  boy  to  tease  him.  As  it  once  happened  he 
wore  a  light-colored  coat  and  hat,  which  suggested 
the  salutation,  "  White  coat,  white  hat,  white  head, 
white  everything." 

Grandmother  Greene  had  a  small  sum  of  money 
at  interest  in  Providence  Savings  Bank.  When  her 
annual  dividend  came  she  was  sure  to  replenish  her 
store  of  snuff  for  herself  alone,  and  stow  away  in 
mysterious  boxes  a  fresh  purchase  of  candy  and 
figs,  part  of  which  would  come  to  us  boys  in  frugal 
installments.  There  was  no  surplus  pocket-money 
in  those  days;  but  we  always  had  enough,  and  had 
it  beforehand,  so  that  we  could  buy  our  fire-crackers, 


THE    WHITE    ROCK    HOME  29 

and  in  the  intervening  days  pack  and  smell  the  pow- 
dery treasure,  wishing  for  the  "  Fourth  "  to  come. 

In  the  house  at  that  time  there  were  quite  a  few 
good  volumes  to  awaken  the  curiosity  of  growing 
boys:  Peter  Parley's  "History  of  the  World," 
Rollin's  "Ancient  History,"  Seward's  "  Life  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,"  "  Camp-Fires  of  the  Revolution," 
"  The  American  Statesman,"  "  The  Christian  Life  " 
by  Peter  Bain,  some  of  Ripley's  and  some  of  Barnes's 
"  Notes,"  with  other  smaller  books,  and  a  well-worn 
family  Bible.  For  papers  we  had,  from  the  very 
first,  "The  Watchman,"  in  its  various  transmuta- 
tions, sometimes  "  The  Christian  Era,"  that  grand- 
mother might  have  one  of  Spurgeon's  sermons  to 
read  while  we  were  all  at  church,  the  New  York 
"  Semi- Weekly  Tribune,"  "  The  Phrenological  Jour- 
nal " — the  last,  in  spite  of  all  the  criticisms  that  might 
be  launched  against  it,  was  a  potent  inspiration  for 
boys  hungering  for  larger,  nobler  life  amid  closely 
hemming-in  environment.  The  biographical  sketches 
—  the  crude  attempts  at  moral  and  mental  philoso- 
phy, the  health  suggestions,  the  appeal  to  awaken- 
ing manhood  —  furnished  an  important  educational 
stimulus  to  the  home  atmosphere. 


A    BREAK    TOWARD    THE 
LARGER    LIFE 


"My  son,  bear  the  instruction  of  thy  father  and  for- 
sake not  the  law  of  thy  mother:  for  they  shall  be  an 
ornament  of  grace  unto  thy  bead,  and  a  chain  about  thy 
neck."  —PROVERBS. 

"  My  future  deeds  bestir  themselves  within  me,  ana 
move  grandly  toward  a  consummation,  as  ships  go  down 
the  Thames."  —  THOREAU. 

' '  He  had  rehearsed 

The  homely  tale  with  such  familiar  power, 
With  such  an  active  countenance,  an  eye 
So  busy,  that  the  things  of  which  be  spake 
Seemed  present."  —WORDSWORTH. 


IF 
A  BREAK  TOWARD  THE  LARGER  LIFE 

As  I  have  said,  in  March,  1866,  Stephen  again 
began  work  in  the  mill.  But  it  was  under  changed 
conditions.  A  year  and  a  half  at  school  had  re- 
enforced  his  native  manliness  so  that  he  was  given  a 
promotion.  He  was  made  "second  hand  "of  the 
spooling-room  and  dressing-room,  under  Archibald 
McLellan,  a  Scotchman  of  the  Scotch,  who  was 
overseer.  He  also  cleaned  and  varnished  the  har- 
nesses for  the  looms ;  he  watched  the  mill  at  noon 
and  rang  the  bell  to  call  the  operatives  in  after  din- 
ner. He  said  himself,  "The  job  was  comparatively 
an  easy  one,"  affording  him  considerable  spare  time. 
A  part  of  this  time  was  given  to  practicing  on  a 
melodeon,  which  father  had  bought  the  year  pre- 
vious especially  for  his  use. 

This  was  the  year  when  I  went  away  to  Suffield 
to  school.  A  decision  on  my  part  to  study  for  the 
ministry  was  probably  the  only  thing  that  made  it 
easy  for  such  an  outward  path  to  be  cut  through. 
In  those  days,  however  much  we  read  and  heard, 
collegiate  honors,  M.D.'s,  D.D.'s,  and  engineers  with 
incomes  of  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year  were  seem- 
ingly no  nearer  than  the  presidency  of  the  United 
States,  or  the  wonderful  achievements  of  Aladdin. 
It  was  a  thing  of  growth ;  but  letters  passing  back 

33 


34  STEPHEN   GREENE 

and  forth,  between  home  and  the  outside  larger 
educational  world,  began  at  once  to  push  the  horizon 
farther  back.  Stephen  took  the  place  in  the  class  I 
had  to  leave  in  the  Sunday  school.  He  also  be- 
came an  active  member  in  the  White  Rock  Excelsior 
Club,  and  I  find,  by  consulting  one  of  the  very 
first  letters  I  received  in  my  new  school  home,  that 
Stephen  led  in  a  debate  on  the  negative  of  this 
question,  "  Are  short  terms  of  political  office  de- 
sirable?" This  club  was  an  outgrowth  of  a  trio  affair 
begun  by  Ethan  Wilcox,  Charles  Arnold,  and  my- 
self as  we  lingered,  after  the  store  was  closed,  in  the 
boot  and  shoe  corner,  reading  our  several  literary 
productions  to  each  other.  Stephen  was  elected 
librarian  of  the  Sunday  school,  serving  as  such  for 
the  next  three  years  and  adding  at  the  last  the  office 
of  secretary  and  treasurer.  In  the  summer  of  1867 
he  took  a  few  lessons  on  the  church  organ  at  Wes- 
terly, and  about  this  time  he  began  to  give  lessons 
on  the  melodeon.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  he  was 
in  the  midst  of  highest  activity  of  village  life.  He 
was  bound  to  learn ;  he  was  delighted  to  serve ;  he 
dared  to  lead. 

Because  of  his  maturing  judgment,  his  push, 
efficiency,  and  manly  poise,  father  decided  to  offer 
him,  in  September,  1867,  when  he  was  sixteen  years 
old,  the  opportunity  of  being  overseer  of  the  carding- 
room.  Stephen  writes:  "He  did  not  attempt  to 
dictate  in  this  matter,  but  placed  the  chance  before 
me,  and  left  it  for  my  decision."  He  took  the 


THE   LARGER   LIFE  35 

place,  assuming  charge  only  in  part  at  first,  knowing 
it  involved  very  much  more  care  and  confinement. 
Father  stood  close  by  for  a  while,  until  he  was  ini- 
tiated. The  machinery  was  put  in  better  condition, 
the  behavior  of  the  help  was  very  much  improved, 
and  the  room,  which  had  been  behind  in  its  work, 
after  a  while  caught  up  and  made  a  better  showing. 
But  when  the  novelty  wore  off,  the  care  and  confine- 
ment began  to  lay  heavy  siege  at  the  heart  of  the 
young  overseer.  He  says:  "I  began  to  have  a 
dislike  for  it,  some  of  which  I  never  could  get  over; 
and  I  inwardly  wished  I  never  had  accepted  it. 
But  for  the  sake  of  my  reputation  I  never  men- 
tioned it  then,  and  resolved  to  stay  a  reasonable  time 
and  learn  all  I  could."  In  October,  1868,  having 
given  the  work  a  fair  trial,  as  he  thought,  he  opened 
his  heart  to  his  father.  He  wanted  to  be  relieved 
the  next  spring  and  find  some  other  business. 
Father's  pride  was  involved,  and  moreover,  he 
wanted  Stephen  to  stick  to  the  position  until  he 
gained  a  complete  victory  in  the  eyes  of  all,  him- 
self included.  After  a  series  of  talks  it  was  finally 
agreed  that  he  should  remain  until  the  summer  of 
1870,  and  in  January  of  that  year  he  should  begin 
to  have  both  his  board  and  wages,  and  so  have  a 
start  for  schooling  wherever  he  wished  to  go. 
Stephen  often  said,  in  after  years,  that  father's  ad- 
vice at  that  time  was  the  very  best  thing.  The 
work  then  carried  to  victorious  issue  was  at  the  basis 
of  all  his  after  success  in  mill  engineering. 


36  STEPHEN    GREENE 

In   his   diary   for   1869,  when   a  boy  seventeen 
years  old,  he  records  the  following : 

RESOLUTIONS  FOR  THE  PRESENT  YEAR 

1.  I   will   regard   my   Christian   character,  duties,  and 
allegiance  to  Christ  in  all  things  my  first  and  paramount 
business. 

2.  1  will  make  the  common  Christian  duties,  such  as 
secret   prayer,  reading   scripture,  taking   part   in   meeting, 
etc.,  a  matter  of  principle,  and  perform   them  whether  I 
feel  like  it  or  not. 

3.  I  will   confess  all   the   wrong    I   am  conscious  of 
having  done  to  any  one,  as  I  have  opportunity ;  and  try  to 
make  right  all  that  any  one  has  against  me  ;  and  take,  as 
my    rule  of  action,   in   all    the    relations  I  sustain  to  my 
fellow-creatures   the    Golden    Rule  of   the     New   Testa- 
ment. 

4.  I  will  obey  all  the  laws  of  health  so  far  as  I  under- 
stand them,  especially  in  regard  to  diet,  bathing,  strength- 
ening the  lungs,  and  will  take  all  means  to  build  up  the 
system  generally. 

5.  I  will  have  regular  system  or  order  in  my  course 
of  reading,  and  will,  from  time  to  time,  form  plans  as  to 
the   subject   and   amount  in  a  given  time,  and  then  will 
adhere  to  them  as  near  as  circumstances  will  admit. 

6.  I  will  confine  myself,  first,  in  religious  reading  (aside 
from  the  Bible)  to  works  that  promote  practical  piety,  rather 
than   on  theology,  and  in  other  reading,  to  works  on  im- 
provement or  education,  particularly  the  study  of  man  in 
all  departments  (except  current  news  items,  etc.,  such  as 
papers,  magazines,  etc.). 

7.  I  will  strive  to  be  diligent  and  faithful  in  my  secular 


THE   LARGER   LIFE  37 

business,  and  try  to  acquire  all  the  knowledge  and  skill 
pertaining  to  it. 

8.  I  will  drop  all  bad  or  foolish  habits  formed  ;  strive 
to  bring  my  animal  propensities  in  subjection  to  my  higher 
nature  ;  keep  my  affections  pure,  appetite  unperverted  ;  not 
engage  in  anything  upon  which  I  cannot  consistently  ask 
the  blessing  of  God  ;  and  finally,  in  all  things  so  to  live 
each   day  that  I  shall   be   forming  a   character   God  will 
finally  approve. 

9.  I  will  not  attempt  to  keep  the  foregoing  resolutions 
in  my  own  strength,  but  will  ever  look  and  pray  for  strength 
to  Him  who  has  promised  to  give  us  all  things  we  stand 
in  need  of. 

The  question  of  what  business  to  follow  became 
urgent,  especially  as  he  wished  in  the  intervening 
time  to  be  preparing  himself  as  he  should  be  able. 
A  Mr.  Ladd  urged  him,  while  on  a  visit  to  Provi- 
dence, to  become  a  civil  engineer.  The  more  he 
learned  about  it,  the  more  he  became  inclined  to 
that  profession.  In  the  summer  of  1869  we  two 
made  a  trip  to  New  York  to  see  the  sights.  John 
Taylor  and  Howard  Morgan,  former  pupils  in  Fos- 
ter's school,  gave  us  welcome.  The  former,  a 
lawyer,  gave  us  the  use  of  a  room  at  his  boarding- 
house  in  Brooklyn.  The  latter  was  a  young  physi- 
cian then  serving  in  a  hospital  on  Blackwell's  Island. 
Among  the  many  things  down  on  my  program  was 
to  hear  Beecher  preach  in  his  own  pulpit,  and  on 
Stephen's  to  visit  389  Broadway,  Fowler  &  Wells, 
and  get  a  phrenological  chart  of  his  character,  with  a 
view  to  helping  in  the  choice  of  a  pursuit.  S.  R. 


38  STEPHEN   GREENE 

Wells  examined  him  and  gave  him  advice.  The 
thirteen  pages,  preserved  as  valued  memento,  lie  be- 
fore me  as  I  write.  It  is  remarkable  how  faithful  was 
the  delineation,  how  true  to  after  life  the  predictions 
were.  I  quote  a  few  sentences :  "  You  like  to  have 
your  own  way.  It  is  just  as  natural  for  you  to  take 
a  position  and  maintain  it  as  it  is  to  breathe.  You 
have  that  spirit  which  seeks  to  lead  rather  than  to 
follow.  You  are  frank,  open,  and  free.  You  have 
more  generosity  than  economy.  It  is  hard  for  you 
to  say  no  when  appeals  are  made  to  your  sympa- 
thy. You  are  a  good  observer,  quick  to  look  into 
new  things.  You  remember  distinctly  that  which 
you  see  clearly.  You  will  be  methodical  and  sys- 
tematic, having  things  in  place.  You  are  accurate 
as  an  accountant.  You  have  considerable  love  for 
variety,  and  at  times  may  seem  to  lack  application. 
You  have  taste  and  refinement.  You  can  read 
character  well.  You  would  make  a  good  engineer, 
a  builder,  an  architect,  or  a  designer."  This  exami- 
nation so  tallied  with  his  own  self-knowledge,  so 
confirmed  his  instinctive  groping  after  a  suitable 
calling,  that  from  this  time  his  mind  was  made  up; 
his  life  work  was  to  be  "something  in  the  line  of 
engineering  or  architecture,  or  at  least  planning  and 
constructing  in  some  way."  A  little  later,  after 
consulting  with  Professor  Clarke  as  to  the  course  of 
civil  engineering  in  Brown  University,  he  decided 
to  brush  up  his  common  English  studies,  and  with 
my  assistance,  to  make  a  beginning  in  geometry  and 


THE    LARGER   LIFE  39 

plane  trigonometry  and  so  be  able  to  enter  the  sec- 
ond year  of  that  course  in  the  autumn  of  1870. 
This  clear,  definite  decision  brought  the  beginning 
of  a  great  aim,  hope,  and  joy  into  his  life. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  he  began  a  more  elabo- 
rate diary.  His  first  regular  entry  is  under  date  of 
January  4,  1870,  but  this  is  preceded  by  twenty- 
four  pages  of  what  he  calls  "Autobiography,  up  to 
January,  1870."  These  twenty-four  pages  are 
written  in  a  plain,  correct  hand,  probably  during  the 
month  of  December,  as  on  the  fly-leaf  I  see  his  name 
and  full  address,  with  the  date  "November,  1869." 
Here  is  the  last  sentence  in  the  autobiography:  "I 
now  began  to  feel  in  some  degree  that  (though  not 
of  age)  I  must  fight  my  own  battles ;  and  that  the 
key  to  my  success  or  failure  was  in  my  own  hands ; 
and  I  believe  I  felt  that,  with  God's  blessing,  I 
would  do  what  was  in  my  power  to  make  my  life 
what  it  should  be." 

It  was  not  his  purpose  to  write  every  day,  but 
"  by  retrospective  glances "  to  keep  a  connected 
account.  "It  shall  be  my  aim,"  he  says,  "not  only 
to  describe  events  accurately,  but  to  write  neatly  and 
correctly."  For  the  next  five  months  he  gives,  in 
nine  different  entries,  account  of  his  daily  life.  He 
is  faithful  to  all  duties,  in  mill,  home,  Sunday  school, 
meetings.  He  speaks  of  his  interest  in  lectures 
which  he  attended  in  Westerly.  His  mind  evi- 
dently was  growing  rapidly,  taking  wider  ranges  of 
subjects,  and  what  he  received  kindled  his  mind  to 


40  STEPHEN    GREENE 

such  glow  that  he  must  speak  of  it  to  others.  At 
one  time  he  came  home  surcharged  with  the  mag- 
netic oratory  of  the  speaker,  and  gave  such  a  full, 
vivid,  enthusiastic  reproduction  of  the  lecture,  one 
lady  said,  "  There,  it  seems  just  as  if  I  had  heard 
that  lecture  myself."  This  was  a  companion  picture 
to  what  might  be  seen  at  River  Point  when  he  went 
there  on  a  visit  to  Grandfather  Arnold.  The  old 
man  would  seat  Stephen  directly  in  front,  start  him 
with  questions,  and  then  listen  with  rapt  attention 
and  supreme  delight  to  the  panoramic  flow  of  word- 
picturing,  delineated  with  snap-shot  accuracy  and 
with  ceaseless  gusto  to  the  last. 

He  sang  for  a  while  in  the  choir  at  Westerly, 
and  for  a  few  Sundays,  at  short  notice,  played  the 
organ.  This  latter  feat  was  performed  with  great 
trepidation,  but  it  shows  the  willingness  and  the 
venture  in  him  to  try.  There  was  considerable 
laughing  about  the  service  of  February  yth.  Elder 
Dennison  was  called  away  suddenly  and  insisted  on 
my  preaching  for  him.  Ed  Vose,  the  organist,  was 
absent  and  Stephen  had  to  play.  "It  looks  as 
though  the  Greenes  are  running  things." 

In  the  first  five  months  of  1870  he  studied 
evenings,  mastering  the  first  four  books  of  geome- 
try, and  finishing  with  a  review  of  the  English 
branches,  then  taking  up  plane  trigonometry.  He 
recited  to  me  when  I  happened  to  be  at  home.  His 
prospects  took  on  good  cheer  when  the  report  came 
from  President  Caswell  that  a  certain  number  of 


THE    LARGER   LIFE  41 

young  men  who  should  take  the  course  in  civil  engi- 
neering would  be  entitled  to  state  aid.  He  was 
elected  state  beneficiary  in  Brown  University  June 
1 5th,  Samuel  H.  Cross,  our  state  senator,  having 
presented  his  name. 

This  is  the  last  entry  in  his  diary  as  a  factory 
boy:  "I  commenced  my  c  notice '  in  the  mill  this 
morning.  I  expect  my  time  will  be  out  the  ninth 
of  July,  two  weeks  from  next  Saturday  night."  This 
was  under  date  of  June  28,  1870. 


COLLEGE    LIFE    ENTERED 


"  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of  knowl- 
edge."— PROVERBS. 

"  What  sculpture  is  to  a  block  of  marble,  education  is 
to  the  human  sou/." — ADDISON. 

"  A  complete  and  generous  education  fits  a  man  to  per- 
form justly,  skillfully,  an  J  magnanimously  all  the  offices  of 
peace  and  war." — MILTON. 

"  /  must  set  the  highest  value  on  the  personal  inter- 
course with  teacher,  from  whom  one  learns  how  thought 
works  in  independent  beads.  Whoever  has  come  in  contact 
but  once  with  one  or  several  first-class  men  will  find  his 
intellectual  standard  changed  for  life." — HELMHOLTZ. 


COLLEGE   LIFE   ENTERED 

Monday,  July  i  ith,  he  makes  these  entries  :  "  I 
finished  work  in  the  mill  Saturday  night,  and  I  feel 
as  if  a  great  load  had  been  lifted  from  me.  Two 
weeks  ago  to-day  I  went  to  Providence  to  attend 
commencement  exercises.  Thursday  forenoon  I 
entered  my  name,  and  was  examined  to  enter  the 
university.  I  must  confess  that  I  had  a  little  dread 
of  it  before  I  went  in,  but,  upon  going  through,  I 
found  it  was  not  as  much  as  I  had  thought.  I  was 
examined  in  mathematics  by  Professor  Clarke,  and  in 
English  grammar  and  geography  by  Professor  Ban- 
croft." Before  returning  home  that  night  he  learned 
that  he  had  passed,  and  soon  after  he  received  his 
certificate  as  state  beneficiary.  He  continues,  "Now 
I'm  all  straight  with  reference  to  that  and  my  enter- 
ing the  university.  I  feel  very  thankful  that  I  have 
been  so  prospered.  I  can  enjoy  my  vacation  better." 

On  the  Fourth  of  July  the  village  had  a  picnic  on 
the  lot  between  our  house  and  the  store.  Father 
was  at  the  head  not  only  by  virtue  of  being  super- 
intendent of  the  village,  but  because  he  was  a  past- 
master  in  conducting  a  Rhode  Island  clam-bake. 
One  of  his  rare  delights,  oft  repeated  through  many 
years,  was  to  go  into  all  the  particulars,  as  to  size, 
heat  and  position  of  stones,  the  lay  of  sea-weed,  the 

45 


46  STEPHEN    GREENE 

heap  of  the  clams,  the  adjuncts  of  potatoes  and  green 
corn.  His  face  and  tone  of  voice  would  always  reflect 
the  pride  he  felt  in  his  achievements,  while  memory 
of  these  succulent  feasts  down  by  the  sounding  sea 
would  always  make  our  mouths  water  to  have  him 
prove  his  skill  once  more.  The  Sunday  school 
marched  in  procession  from  the  school-house.  After 
dinner  Stephen  read  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, and  also  acted  as  toast-master,  while  he  him- 
self, at  the  close,  was  called  out  as  an  extra,  for  the 
people  were  proud  of  him,  and  rejoiced  in  his  open- 
ing prospects. 

The  early  part  of  the  summer  was  given  to  a 
visit  among  relatives,  the  Hazzards  in  Putnam,  the 
Briggs  in  Grosvenordale,  Connecticut;  the  Bennetts 
and  the  Arnolds  in  Phenix  and  River  Point.  These 
villages  were  the  stamping-ground  for  the  Greene 
boys  in  their  occasional  visits.  He  also  extended 
his  trip  to  Rocky  Point  and  Newport,  and  when  he 
rounded  up  his  tour  in  White  Rock  he  had  one  of 
those  deathly  sick  times  which  periodically  reminded 
him  that,  though  "  The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the 
fullness  thereof,"  and  he  was  one  of  the  Lord's 
favorite  children,  still  there  was  a  limit  to  his  assimi- 
lative capacity.  During  the  month  of  August  he 
took  up  study  again.  He  reviewed  geometry,  prac- 
ticed draughting,  and  took  lessons  in  penmanship. 

Monday,  September  5th,  he  made  his  last  entry  in 
his  diary  as  a  boy  at  home.  The  bulk  of  his  life 
and  activity  hereafter  will  be  out  in  the  great  world. 


COLLEGE   LIFE    ENTERED  47 

Home,  outside  of  vacations,  will  be  a  memory;  and 
to  him  it  was  such  a  hallowed  one!  He  writes: 
"To-morrow  I  expect  to  leave  home  for  Providence. 
I  have  lived  here  so  long  I  have  become  attached  to 
the  place;  and  of  course  it  is  not  pleasant  to  part 
with  all  my  friends.  But  feeling  it  is  for  my  best 
interest  to  go,  and  expecting  to  be  surrounded  by 
congenial  friends,  I  look  forward  with  some  pleasure 
to  my  departure." 

September  i9th.  Under  this  date  I  find  this 
first  sentence,  written  at  Brown :  "  I  have  really 
entered  college.  I  came  in  two  weeks  ago  to- 
morrow, and  the  remainder  of  that  week  I  was  at 
work  with  Benjamin  fixing  up  our  room.  We  had 
it  cleaned.  J  painted  and  we  together  papered  it; 
and  now  it  looks  quite  cheerful  and  pleasant."  That 
was  room  No.  40,  at  the  foot  of  the  second  flight 
of  stairs,  in  the  south  part  of  the  old  University 
Hall.  Bestor,  my  former  chum  at  Suffield  and  for 
two  years  in  Brown,  roomed  next  to  us  ;  Dean  across 
the  way,  and  Bennett  and  John  Mason  in  the 
Adoniram  Judson  room  at  the  southeast  corner  of 
that  floor.  He  entered  for  a  select  course,  sitting 
with  the  sophomores,  class  of  1873,  taking  geometry 
with  the  freshmen  under  Professor  Clarke,  trigo- 
nometry with  the  sophomores  under  Professor 
Greene,  and  French  under  Professor  Hobigand. 
He  entered  the  second  year's  class  in  civil  engineer- 
ing. He  says:  "I  like  my  studies  very  well; 
although  it  seems  a  little  hard  for  me  to  apply  my- 


48  STEPHEN    GREENE 

self  closely.  It  is  something  I  have  not  been  used 
to.  I  guess  I  shall  soon  get  broken  in.  I  take  my 
meals  where  Benjamin  has  been  boarding  for  a  year, 
Mrs.  Gould's,  on  North  Main  Street." 

He  began  at  once  to  go  to  the  Central  Baptist 
Church  with  me.  He  joined  Professor  Clarke's  Bible 
class,  and  in  October  brought  his  letter  of  member- 
ship. He  attended  the  Tuesday  evening  prayer- 
meeting,  and  in  all  ways  identified  himself  with 
the  active  force  of  the  church.  He  liked  "  Mr.  Bain- 
bridge's  preaching  very  much."  In  December  he  took 
a  class  of  boys.  It  soon  grew  to  nine,  and  three 
of  them  were  baptized,  became  active  workers,  and 
showed  appreciation  of  their  teacher  by  giving  him 
a  fine  flexible  pocket  Bible.  On  the  last  day  of  the 
year  he  writes :  "  I  have  at  times  had  my  heart 
warmed  with  love,  but  I  feel  a  conscious  lack  of  that 
strong,  relying  faith  which  I  ought  to  have.  It  is 
my  prayer  that  I  may  grow  in  grace,  and  be  more 
earnestly  and  more  zealously  engaged." 

He  joined  D.  U.,  and  in  commenting  on  it  said: 
"  It  is  composed,  I  think,  of  some  of  the  best  men 
in  college."  What  a  delightful  fellowship,  as  I  now 
look  back  upon  it :  The  Farnhams  (E.  P.  and  Seth), 
O.  P.  Gifford  and  Robert  Martin,  Ed  Miller,  Blake, 
O.  P.  Bestor,  E.  A.  Herring,  W.  W.  Landrum,  Jack 
McKinney,  D.  W.  Hoyt,  D.  H.  Taylor,  L.  S.  Wood- 
worth,  W.  V.  Kellen,  W.  S.  Liscomb,  and  others ; 
with  E.  Benjamin  Andrews  and  Will  Peck  to  talk 
about  as  carrying  honors  in  the  class  of  '70. 


COLLEGE    LIFE    ENTERED  49 

He  had  the  privilege  of  hearing  such  lecturers 
as  Gough,  Beecher,  and  Wendell  Phillips.  These 
were  a  great  inspiration  to  him.  When  he  got  home 
from  hearing  the  oratorio  of  the  "  Creation  "  he  says  : 
"  It  was  the  grandest  thing  I  ever  heard."  He  took 
vocal  lessons  of  one  of  the  students,  wishing  to  make 
the  most  of  his  voice  by  knowing  just  how  to  use 
it.  A  part  of  the  music  of  our  room,  as  I  remem- 
ber it  now,  was  his  refrain  of  "  B.  Two,  Pa.  Ah." 
I  see  his  face  glowing  like  the  morning  sunrise, 
his  mouth  wide  open  in  his  intense  desire  to  con- 
vert all  breath  into  musical  amplitude,  while  in  his 
looks  there  was  a  willing  of  the  lowermost  muscles 
to  put  in  their  fundamental  work.  No  half-way 
business  for  him.  Then,  as  in  after  life,  it  was 
a  habit  to  throw  his  whole  soul  into  what  he  did. 
When  he  sang,  this  wholeness  began  with  the  first 
word.  The  last  of  the  first  year  he  joined  the  col- 
lege chorus  and  enjoyed  it  intensely.  It  gave  him 
a  touch  of  musical  experience  which  was  both  culture 
and  enlargement.  He  was  successful  in  his  first  year's 
studies,  getting  the  highest  mark,  20,  in  all  but 
physiology.  His  face  and  voice,  his  ability  and 
conscientiousness,  gave  him  right  of  way  in  many 
a  college  experience.  In  debate  he  was  not  specially 
active,  probably  because  he  had  not  the  academic 
training  of  his  associates ;  but  he  often  spoke  after- 
wards of  the  help  it  gave  him  in  thinking  on  his  feet. 

In  the  second  year  he  took  physics  under  Profes- 
sor Blake,  and  chemistry  with  Professor  Appleton. 


50  STEPHEN    GREENE 

In  connection  with  his  engineering  course,  he  secured 
a  position  in  the  office  of  the  city  waterworks  to  make 
tracing  and  do  other  work  as  called  for.  Professor 
Clarke  on  this  account  excused  him  from  drawing 
in  the  college  class.  He  was  thus  able  to  learn 
and  earn  at  the  same  time.  This  advantage  helped 
him  to  make  up  his  mind  to  stay  three  years  and 
graduate  in  the  B.  P.  course.  He  writes:  "I  natu- 
rally want  to  go  out  this  year  and  go  into  business, 
but  I  feel  it  is  my  duty,  as  I  have  the  opportunity, 
to  get  as  good  a  preparation  as  possible  for  my 
future  life.  And  not  only  do  I  need  and  want 
the  preparation  I  may  gain  in  my  studies  here  at 
college,  but  I  want  to  be  prepared  as  a  Christian 
man  for  all  my  duties,  both  in  the  church  with  all 
its  work  and  outside  of  the  church,  and  this  leads 
me  to  say  that  I  have  enjoyed  more,  I  think,  in  the 
Christian  life  during  the  last  term  than  I  have  since 
the  revival  when  I  was  converted."  This  entry 
was  made  January  18,  1872,  and  it  was  the  last 
in  the  book.  There  are  a  few  loose  slips  of  paper 
with  memoranda  from  which  he  evidently  intended 
to  fill  in  and  continue  "a  connected  account";  but 
college  life,  church  and  social  fellowship  were  more 
and  more  cumulative  in  their  demands. 

He  loved  companionship ;  and  there  must  come 
in  somewhere  wit,  joke,  laughter;  but  any  approach 
to  the  low  or  the  mean  awakened  his  disgust.  He 
would  never  tire  of  reverting  to  a  good  thing,  and 
having  a  fresh  explosion  of  laughter  over  it.  One 


COLLEGE  LIFE  ENTERED      51 

thing  that  pleased  him  immensely  was  a  remark 
of  "  Big  Smith  "  who  was  struggling  along  through 
college.  When  he  managed,  after  prolonged  econ- 
omy, to  get  a  new  suit,  he  said,  "  Boys,  I  'm  bound 
to  dress  well,  if  I  don't  lay  up  a  cent." 

During  his  first  year  in  college  he  became  acquaint- 
ed with  Mr.  N.  B.  Schubarth,  a  civil  engineer  in  the 
city  and  a  member  of  the  Central  Church.  It  was 
natural  that  the  two  should  become  interested  in 
each  other,  because  of  their  similar  business  tastes. 
But  there  was  something  working  deeper  than  busi- 
ness instincts  and  ambition.  Natalia,  the  daughter, 
attended  the  evening  services  with  her  father ;  and 
very  soon  Stephen  found  his  path  was  crossed  by 
a  face,  a  voice,  a  soul,  born,  as  he  felt,  to  be  the 
queen  of  his  heart.  The  process  of  enthronement 
was  not  hasty ;  but  there  was  in  it  the  steady, 
increasing  persistency  of  love,  genuine,  profound, 
which  gathered  into  itself  the  quintessence  of  all 
that  was  best  in  him.  It  was  in  the  summer  of  1872 
that  the  fateful  letter  was  sent  from  his  White  Rock 
home,  and  gained  reply  which  sealed  the  mutual 
pledge.  In  those  days  Aunt  Sarah  was  a  confidant 
in  many  a  long,  frank  talk.  To  show  how  impor- 
tant steps  were  closely  associated  with  religious  spirit 
and  conviction,  let  me  quote  a  sentence  just  here : 
"  While  at  home  I  performed  an  act  which,  with 
the  exception  of  my  reception  and  profession  by 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  was  perhaps  one  of  the  most 
important  events  of  my  whole  life.  After  prayer- 


52  STEPHEN   GREENE 

fully  and  thoughtfully  considering  the  matter  I  de- 
cided to  write." 

This  phase  of  his  life  brings  up  fresh  to  mind  our 
improvised  quartette:  "Cap"  Landrum,  Herring, 
Stephen,  myself.  In  the  spring  of  1 872  we  four  were 
boarding  at  "Mother"  Wickes',  on  Broad  Street. 
In  leisure  moments,  when  the  inner  man  was  filled, 
it  was  natural  for  "Cap"  to  strike  up  "Sweet  Belle 
Mahone."  Stephen  was  a  close  second.  Herring 
and  I  would  follow  as  we  could.  Three  of  us  were 
far  enough  along  in  our  elect  preferences,  and  we 
decided  one  night  upon  a  round  of  serenade.  Look- 
ing back  upon  it  now  it  seems  incredible  that  we 
dared  to  venture  on  such  enterprise,  but  we  did ; 
Smith's  Hill,  the  bottom  and  the  top  of  it,  and 
Greenwich  Street  heard  what  we  could  do.  In  one 
place,  to  give  our  voices  vantage,  we  leaped  a  fence 
and  found  ourselves  ankle  deep  in  mud.  In  those 
days,  late  hours,  a  high  jump,  venturesome  endeavor, 
were  counted  as  nothing,  even  though  recitation 
came  very  early  next  morning. 

He  returned  to  college  in  the  autumn  of  1872 
with  heart  elate,  with  mind  exultant.  Three  im- 
portant choices — the  choice  of  religion,  business, 
affection — were  back  of  him,  were  in  him,  re-enfor- 
cing with  a  triple  motive  power.  Two  years  had 
accustomed  him  to  study.  Success  had  added  a 
sense  of  victorious  ability,  and  the  senior  year 
opened  with  marvelous  fascination.  He  took  as- 
tronomy and  the  calculus  under  Professor  Greene, 


AT  SEVEN. 


AT  SIXTEEN. 


AT  EIGHTEEN. 


AT  TWENTY-ONE. 


COLLEGE    LIFE    ENTERED  53 

geology  under  Professor  Appleton,  political  econ- 
omy under  Professor  Diman,  and  philosophy  under 
that  prince  of  teachers,  President  E.  G.  Robinson. 
Finding  his  studies  required  more  time  he  gave  up 
his  position  in  the  office  of  the  city  waterworks,  but 
was  employed  vacations  with  Mr.  Schubarth.  He 
graduated  a  B.  P.,  and  with  the  honor  of  having 
attained  the  rank  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 


FEELING   HIS  WAY   INTO    PLACE 


"  Not  slothful  in  business,  fervent  in  spirit,  serving 
the  Lord'."  — PAUL. 

"  /  will  go  forth  'mong  men,  not  mailed  in  scorn 
But  in  the  armor  of  a  pure  intent. 
Great  duties  lie  before  me  and  great  aims." 

"  Man  is  no  star,  but  a  quick  coal 

Of  mortal  fire : 
Who  blows  it  not,  nor  doth  control 

A  faint  desire. 
Lets  bis  own  ashes  choke  bis  soul. ' ' 

— GEORGE  HERBERT. 

• '  Deeper,  far  deeper,  than  supply  and  demand  are  laws, 
obligations,  sacred  as  man's  life  itself.  He  that  will  learn 
them,  behold,  Nature  is  on  bis  side.  He  shall  yet  work 
and  prosper  with  noble  rewards." — CARLYLE. 


VI 
FEELING  HIS  WAY  INTO  PLACE 

After  a  short  vacation  he  began  to  work  in  the 
architect  and  engineer's  office  of  N.  B.  Schubarth, 
No.  29  Weybossett  Street.  There  he  could  at 
once  apply  in  part  what  he  had  been  learning  in  a 
general  way  and  he  would  be  in  condition  to  enter 
with  more  practical  skill  any  special  line  when  it 
presented  itself. 

In  this  office  he  continued  work  about  a  year 
and  a  half.  While  thus  employed,  on  the  eve  of 
December  15,  1874,  he  married  Natalia  L.  Schu- 
barth, in  the  beautiful  home  of  the  bride's  parents, 
on  Smith's  Hill,  the  pastor,  Rev.  W.  F.  Bainbridge, 
officiating.  The  night  outside  was  intensely  cold. 
The  ordeal  of  the  ceremonial,  anticipated  with  such 
exuberant  delight,  took  wonted  color  from  the  bride- 
groom's cheeks.  The  solemnity  of  the  event,  for 
the  moment,  struck  down  deepest  of  all.  In  that 
compact  of  wedded  love  he  gave  himself  in  his 
entirety,  gave  all  he  was,  and  in  after  years,  growing 
to  be  more  and  more,  and  having  more  and  more, 
he  still  gave  himself  in  his  entirety.  Love  was  the 
central  possession.  He  was  willing  to  begin  with 
the  best  of  the  little  means  he  could  command,  but 
he  was  bound  to  make  the  little  grow. 

He  was  open-eyed  to  the  advantages  that  would 
57 


58  STEPHEN    GREENE 

come  from  a  combination  of  his  practical  experience 
in  cotton  manufacturing  with  the  scientific  fit  of  a 
collegiate  course.  So  in  April,  1875,  wnen  ne  was 
offered  a  position  in  the  office  of  D.  M.  Thompson 
&  Co.,  mill  architects  and  engineers,  in  Butler  Ex- 
change, he  very  gladly  accepted.  After  some 
months  of  working  on  mill  plans  Mr.  Thompson 
released  him  to  go  to  Hills  Grove,  in  the  employ 
of  Thomas  J.  Hill,  as  superintendent  of  construc- 
tion. Here  he  moved  in  the  spring  of  1876.  Hav- 
ing complete  charge,  seeing  everything  done  from 
the  laying  of  the  foundation  to  the  placing  of  the 
capstone,  and  from  the  setting  of  the  engine  to  the 
finishing  course  of  the  chimney,  arranging  machin- 
ery, managing  help  of  a  different  class  from  those 
in  White  Rock  carding-room,  coming  into  frequent 
contact  with  business  men  in  various  departments, 
he  had  the  best  disciplinary  drill.  He  tucked  it  all 
away  in  his  brain  and  marrow.  He  always  was  a 
walking  interrogation  point.  What  he  saw  in  me- 
chanics and  architecture  became  his  mental  posses- 
sion forever  after.  He  spent  many  a  quiet  evening 
reading  up  on  cotton  manufacturing. 

Before  he  went  to  Hills  Grove  he  had  been 
elected  assistant  superintendent  of  the  Central  Bap- 
tist Sunday  school.  He  made  it  a  practice  to  go  to 
the  city  school  every  Sunday,  and  with  the  help  of 
Fred  Hartwell,  started  a  Sunday  school  and  a  preach- 
ing service  in  the  village.  Religious  work  was  never 
perfunctory,  because  it  was  an  overflow;  even  the 


FEELING    HIS   WAY   INTO    PLACE     59 

boys  in  the  class  he  had  given  up  perceived  it, 
and  they  came  down  to  his  village  home  to  show 
their  appreciation  ;  among  them  was  young  Faunce, 
now  president  of  Brown  University. 

It  was  here  that  Edwin  Farnham,  the  first  son,  was 
born.  What  a  deepening  and  hallowing  of  life  come 
to  a  Christian  man  with  parental  joys  and  cares.  It 
was  also  while  he  lived  here  that  he  with  his  brothers 
first  carried  sacred  dust  from  the  old  home  to  burial. 
This  time  it  was  Grandmother  Greene,  who  had  lived 
to  be  eighty-eight  years  old.  Such  combined  expe- 
riences give  skillful  mixture  of  color  on  life's  palette, 
from  which  the  softer  touches  and  the  deeper,  richer 
shades  are  taken. 

In  November,  1879,  he  returned  to  Providence 
and  entered  the  office  of  A.  D.  Lockwood  &  Co., 
No.  65  Westminster  Street.  This  was  a  coveted 
relationship.  Mr.  Lockwood  had  come  to  be  recog- 
nized as  the  leading  mill  engineer,  taking  the  place 
made  vacant  by  the  death  of  David  Whitman.  The 
name  of  the  latter  was  an  honored  one  in  father's 
estimation.  To  be  associated  with  any  one  in  the 
line  of  his  operation  would  be  most  desirable.  Ste- 
phen began  at  the  draughting-board  in  the  back 
office  with  high  hopes  and  a  dogged  determination 
to  do  the  very  best  he  could.  This  was  the  chance 
he  had  been  looking  for.  To  make  himself  essential 
to  that  office  by  strictest  fidelity  and  by  all  the  superb 
excellence  he  could  command  was  his  ambition. 

Think  for  a  moment  of  his  personality.     It  is 


60  STEPHEN    GREENE 

now  nine  years  since  he  was  overseer.  His  life  had 
been  enriched  by  collegiate  training  and  fellow- 
ship with  the  best.  He  had  the  experience  gained 
in  two  offices  and  from  directing  the  construction 
of  a  first-class  mill.  He  felt  the  responsibility  of 
home  life,  hallowed  by  the  added  care  of  parentage. 
His  growing  worth  and  efficiency  placed  him  high 
in  office  in  one  of  the  chief  churches  of  the  city. 
His  face  then  was  what  it  was  afterward,  a  radiant 
index  of  ability  and  aspiration.  His  manner  and 
bearing  were  pledge  that  he  would  make  a  way 
for  himself. 

It  was  evident  that  Mr.  Lockwood  took  kindly 
to  the  new-comer.  An  occasional  stroll  would  find 
him  standing  at  Stephen's  board  in  friendly  chat. 
In  such  interchange  genial  souls  detect  each  other's 
worth.  The  jealousy  of  the  draughtsman  over  him 
was  speedily  awakened,  and  that  made  the  next  year 
the  most  humiliating  of  his  life.  He  was  unpleasantly 
interfered  with,  shoved  off  into  a  corner,  made  to  feel 
the  thumb-pressure  of  a  "  boss,"  who  was  afraid 
of  what  might  happen.  Well  do  I  remember  our 
conversation  in  those  days.  He  was  in  his  Egypt 
experience.  Sometimes  it  was  like  trying  to  make 
bricks  without  straw.  Shall  he  not  burst  out  in 
protest?  It  was  galling.  Forces  surged  back  and 
forth  in  his  soul  turning  it  into  a  battle-field.  He 
gained  a  victory ;  he  was  silent.  He  swallowed  indig- 
nity and  persevered.  He  endured  the  grinding  and 
kept  at  the  drawing-board.  How  my  heart  ached 


FEELING    HIS   WAY    INTO    PLACE     61 

for  him  as  he  vented  his  indignation  to  me  in  pri- 
vate ;  how  it  gloried  in  him  to  see  the  stuff  he  was 
made  of. 

There  are  good  business  men  whose  eyes  are  like 
God's,  seeing  when  unseen.  The  eyes  of  his  em- 
ployer ferreted  out  the  exact  situation.  One  day 
he  called  Stephen  into  the  front  office,  told  him 
he  knew  what  was  going  on,  advised  him  to  keep 
faithfully  at  his  task,  promising  he  would  soon  hear 
from  him.  At  an  early  day  he  was  given  independent 
work,  and  somewhat  later,  March  i,  1882,  he  was 
taken  into  the  firm,  while  the  man  who  tried  to  hinder 
him  was  allowed  all  the  space  there  was  in  the  out- 
side world. 

All  the  while  he  had  held  to  the  religion  of  his 
boyhood.  It  was  not  simply  grit ;  it  was  grit  mingled 
with  grace.  It  was  fidelity  to  principle;  it  was  am- 
bition weighted  with  conscientiousness.  "The  Right 
and  Noble  Thing";  that  was  the  key -motto  he 
adopted. 


HIS   PLACE   FOUND:     "LOCKWOOD, 
GREENE    &  CO." 


"  Seest  tbou  a  man  diligent  in  bis  business?  He  shall 
stand  before  kings :  be  shall  not  stand  before  mean  men." 
— PROVERBS.  •  » 

"  There  is  nothing  like  dreams  to  create  the  future. 
Utopia  to-day,  flesh  and  blood  to-morrow ." 

— VICTOR  HUGO. 

"  All  building  shows  man  either  as  gathering  or  gov- 
erning :  and  the  secrets  of  bis  success  are  bis  knowing 
what  to  gather  and  bow  to  rule." — RUSKIN. 

"  //  is  easy  in  the  world  to  live  after  the  world* s 
opinion :  it  is  easy  in  solitude  to  live  after  our  own,  but 
the  great  man  is  be  who,  in  the  midst  of  the  crowd,  keeps 
with  perfect  sweetness  the  independence  of  solitude." — 
EMERSON. 


VII 

HIS  PLACE  FOUND:  "LOCKWOOD, 
GREENE  fcf  CO." 

The  firm  consisted  of  Amos  D.  Lockwood,  J. 
W.  Danielson,  and  Stephen  Greene.  An  ideal  situa- 
tion. The  mature,  the  successful  manufacturer  and 
mill  engineer  recognized  the  promise  of  the  younger 
man.  Worth  had  pushed  its  way  into  his  big  heart, 
and  from  the  beginning  he  gave  it  companionship 
without  reserve  and  leadership  with  ever-increasing 
confidence.  Stephen  had  the  profoundest  respect 
for  Mr.  Lockwood.  He  thought  of  him  not  only 
as  a  man  of  acknowledged  understanding  among  all 
mill  authorities,  but  as  having  back  of  all  this  a  man- 
hood he  could  love  for  its  integrity  and  its  ethical 
solidity.  It  was  largeness  not  content  with  big 
business  schemes,  but  such  as  found  delight  in  push- 
ing out  a  wide  horizon  all  around. 

All  that  the  older  partner  knew  was  resource 
for  the  younger,  and  the  latter  brought,  in  addi- 
tion to  youthful  zest  and  latest  scientific  training, 
an  innate  passion  for  accuracy  of  accounts,  order- 
liness, and  system  in  work  and  records.  The 
first  year  he  made  an  extended  tour  through  the 
South,  visiting  mills  in  which  the  firm  were  inter- 
ested. This  was  understood  to  be  his  special  phase 
of  the  work;  so  he  would  relieve  Mr.  Lockwood 

65 


66  STEPHEN    GREENE 

of  most  of  the  traveling  necessary  in  that  kind  of 
business. 

I  have  before  me  a  letter  written  November  21, 
1882,  from  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  speaking  of 
Charlotte,  Spartanburg,  Piedmont,  Pelzer,  New- 
berry.  He  is  expecting  that  afternoon  to  go  to 
Augusta,  Georgia,  and  requests  me  to  send  my 
reply  to  Memphis,  as  a  letter  from  home  is  very  wel- 
come. It  was  a  custom  with  us  to  have  corre- 
spondence quicken  when  he  was  on  a  trip.  He  had 
something  to  write  about,and  also  an  occasional  leisure 
half-hour  on  the  train  or  in  the  hotel,  and  he  wanted 
to  keep  in  touch  with  home  friends.  Letters  to  his 
own  home  were  re-enforced  by  frequent  telegrams 
when  quick  intelligence  was  desired.  A  postscript 
to  this  letter  shows  his  heart :  "  I  ought  to  have 
added  an  expression  of  my  gratitude  that  my  little 
Harold  is  safely  over  the  worst  of  the  scarlet  fever. 
I  was  in  great  anxiety  when  I  heard  of  it  first. 
How  my  sympathy  goes  out  to  Fred  and  Mary 
(Hartwell)  in  the  loss  of  their  little  Johnnie."  He 
never  had  to  build  a  bridge  to  get  into  sympathy 
with  some  one. 

He  enjoyed  these  trips  South  as  they  gave  him 
a  chance  to  study  his  own  business  and  its  possi- 
bilities on  a  larger  scale.  They  also  multiplied  de- 
lightful companionship  and  gave  him  first-hand 
information  in  great  variety.  There  is  nothing  like 
travel,  meeting  typical  humanity  under  varied  con- 
ditions, to  give  finishing  touches  to  culture,  to  en- 


HIS    PLACE   FOUND  67 

courage  breadth  of  view  and  balance  of  judgment. 
He  invariably  sought  out  churches  to  attend  wher- 
ever he  went,  however  tiresome  his  journeying.  He 
was  the  kind  of  a  Christian  that  could  be  rested  at 
the  end  of  the  week's  work  nowhere  so  well  as  in  a 
spirited,  spiritual  service.  Near  the  end  of  his  first 
trip  he  writes  from  Louisville,  Kentucky:  "I  am 
heartily  longing  for  home.  My  trip  has  been 
pleasant  in  many  respects,  but  there's  no  place  like 
home.  I  shall  gladly  exchange  first-class  hotel  fare 
and  Pullman  cars  for  my  quiet  home  on  Pine  Street." 

In  this  initial  run  through  the  South  there  may 
be  found  an  epitome  of  all  the  rest.  Friendships 
kept  multiplying  and  enriching,  information  was  ever 
accumulating,  while  hunger  for  home-coming  grew 
keener  and  keener.  There  was  one  feature  of  these 
excursions  into  the  Sunny  South  which  every  friend 
of  his  will  remember.  He  always  brought  home  at 
least  one  side-splitting  story.  It  would  not  come 
first ;  but  we  knew  he  had  it  in  reserve.  Before  he 
began,  his  face  would  glow  and  wreathe  itself  into  a 
smile.  After  a  little  hitch  in  his  chair,  a  clearing  of 
throat  with  a  little  laugh,  perhaps  a  slap  on  the  knee, 
he  would  proceed  to  reproduce  it,  and  never  once 
would  it  lose  its  cumulative  interest,  its  sure  march  to 
the  explosive  climacteric.  He  believed  it  was  good 
for  both  liver  and  soul  to  laugh  with  gusto. 

This  combination  of  age  and  youth,  of  a  mas- 
terly adviser  at  headquarters  and  a  magnetic  pusher 
in  the  field,  was  successful  from  the  start,  and  con- 


68  STEPHEN    GREENE 

tinued  to  grow  with  promise  until  Mr.  Lockwood's 
sudden  death,  in  the  spring  of  1884.  This  was  a 
terrible  blow.  They  had  been  together  long  enough 
for  Stephen  not  only  to  work  in  harmony  with  his 
ideas  and  methods,  but  to  respect  and  love  him  as  a 
son.  Most  fortunate  was  it  for  the  young  partner 
that  the  Lockwood  family  continued  the  advantages 
of  the  senior  partner's  esteem.  Mr.  J.  W.  Daniel- 
son,  son-in-law  of  Mr.  Lockwood,  continued  in  the 
firm  as  adviser ;  he  brought  with  him  all  the  plans 
of  a  long-established  business  and  the  good  will  of 
the  family. 

From  this  time  the  business  was  virtually  in  the 
hands  of  the  young  mill  engineer,  and  he  was  to 
prove  whether  it  was  to  continue  to  grow  or  dwindle 
and  collapse.  His  treatment  from  first  to  last,  on  the 
part  of  both  Mr.  Lockwood  and  Mr.  Danielson,  was 
magnanimous  in  the  extreme.  Stephen  never  tired 
giving  witness  to  this  fact ;  and  he  also  never  tired  of 
putting  in  his  best,  early  and  late,  at  home  and 
abroad,  to  keep  the  firm  name  an  honored  one. 

These  seven  years,  1879-86,  were  eventful  in 
his  career.  He  forged  to  the  front.  He  demon- 
strated business  ability  of  the  masterly  sort.  His 
power  to  make  friends  and  keep  them  in  the  midst 
of  sharp  competition  was  phenomenal.  He  began 
to  be  talked  about  as  the  typical  enterprising  young 
business  man.  He  loved  recognition,  and  was  proud 
of  the  friends  he  was  making,  but  this  never  took 
from  him  the  shadow  of  a  shade  of  his  regard  and 


HIS    PLACE    FOUND  69 

sympathy  for  the  common  man  and  his  interest  in 
religion.  Indeed,  the  more  he  succeeded  in  business 
the  more  he  rejoiced  that  he  could  bring  this  increase 
of  ability,  means,  and  reputation  to  re-enforce  what 
he  could  do  for  the  church. 

In  1877  he  had  been  elected  to  succeed  that 
prince  among  Sunday  school  superintendents,  James 
Boyce,  and  he  continued  in  that  position  till  his 
removal  to  Newburyport.  He  was  ideal  in  that 
office.  The  children  all  loved  him  ;  for  he  was  the 
incarnation  of  vivacity,  geniality,  and  hopefulness. 
As  he  walked  about  briskly  through  the  gathering 
throng,  his  smile,  his  voice,  his  presence,  were  mag- 
netic. And  when  he  stood  in  front  of  the  school  to 
open  it,  with  singing-book  in  hand,  the  boys  and  the 
girls  looked  upon  him  as  a  sort  of  personal  morning 
sunrise ;  the  day  was  just  beginning,  the  landscape 
was  flooded  with  light.  He  was  his  own  chorister. 
When  he  opened  wide  his  mouth,  threw  back  his 
fine  head  with  a  toss  of  vocal  emphasis,  and  the 
nobility  of  his  face  deepened  the  mellowness  of  his 
voice,  every  one  felt  that  it  was  time  for  a  chorus  of 
song.  His  was  the  early,  liquid  note  of  the  robin ; 
all  songsters  that  had  music  in  their  throat  felt  like 
falling  into  line. 

What  a  delight  such  a  young  man  is  to  a  pastor. 
And  what  a  help  it  is  for  such  a  man  to  have  the 
shaping  influence,  the  encouragement  and  inspiration 
of  such  pastors  as  Benjamin  O.  True  and  Richard 
Montague.  What  providential  joinings  in  those 


7o  STEPHEN   GREENE 

days !  Both  these  men  had  a  royal  appreciation  of 
their  Sunday  school  leader.  They  both  encouraged 
him  to  the  utmost  in  using  his  elect  powers,  native 
and  acquired.  He  was  chosen  deacon  of  the  church, 
and  was  called  out  into  city  and  convention  work. 
In  November,  1885,  he  was  honored  by  election  to 
the  presidency  of  the  Rhode  Island  Baptist  Social 
Union.  Undoubtedly  the  superb  way  in  which  he 
presided  over  the  meetings  of  that  year  gave  him 
that  extended  reputation  which  made  it  seem  the 
natural  thing  for  promotion  to  follow  wherever  he 
went  afterward. 

He  was  not  anxious  for  office.  He  never  pulled 
a  wire  to  get  one.  He  was  anxious  to  serve  ;  sponta- 
neous in  his  willingness,  painstaking  to  the  minutest 
detail,  he  proved  himself  so  helpful,  so  aggressively 
energetic  and  suggestive  in  outlining  of  plan  and 
procedure,  that  thought  of  him  found  itself  nestling 
in  many  a  heart  at  the  same  time.  There  was  a 
demand  for  him  always  preceding  his  entrance  upon 
office.  This  desire  to  serve  led  him  to  invite  stu- 
dents to  his  home  to  dinner,  where  he  might  not 
only  give  the  hospitality  of  food,  but  beam  upon 
them,  and  breathe  into  them  the  inspiration  which 
meant  so  much  to  him  in  former  years. 

After  all,  home  was  the  center,  the  holy  of  holies, 
in  his  earthly  life.  To  grow  and  prosper  meant, 
with  every  heart-beat,  his  home  should  prosper, 
too.  Refinements  and  delicacies  were  added  to  sub- 
stantial things.  His  vow  at  the  marriage  altar  was 


HIS    PLACE    FOUND  71 

ever  a  golden  clasp.  The  children  that  came  brought, 
each  of  them,  additional  hallowing :  Stephen  Harold, 
April  27,  1880,  and  Everett  Arnold,  May  14,  1885. 
When  the  father  entered  the  house,  he  would  look 
for  the  youngest,  and  after  a  kiss  for  his  wife, 
say  to  the  little  one  in  his  arms,  as  he  often  heard 
his  own  father  say,  "  Now,  up  straight  as  a  pickerel," 
and  the  little  tow  head  would  touch  or  come  near  the 
ceiling.  There  were  shouts  and  laughter  when  he 
came  home. 

And  as  his  own  home  became  more  precious  to 
him  he  saw  and  realized  in  the  reflection  of  its  bless- 
ing what  his  own  early  home  had  been,  and  he 
began  to  show  that  larger  and  ever  larger  appre- 
ciation in  adult  years,  which  not  only  helps  to  form 
a  halo  around  the  old  homestead,  but  makes  the  fire 
burn  brighter  on  the  hearthstone.  It  was  on  Thanks- 
giving Day,  1883,  we  had  our  first  large  family 
reunion  at  Granite  Farm.  Parents,  children,  grand- 
children, Aunt  Sally,  Aunt  Sarah,  and  Susie,  all  then 
alive  and  well,  made  up  as  happy  a  family  group 
as  ever  found  shelter  under  the  old  roof-tree;  and 
Stephen  was  then,  as  always,  the  center  of  attraction. 
He  was  the  abounding,  overflowing  one ;  the  leader 
in  talk  and  story-telling;  the  one  to  break  out  in  song 
and  get  all  the  rest  to  join.  It  was  then  that  I  read 
a  half-hour  of  jingling  rhymes,  recounting  the  family 
sojourn  from  Harrisville  to  Westerly;  and  the  mill 
engineer's  pocket-book,  not  plethoric,  but  beginning 
to  bulge  just  a  little,  footed  the  bill  of  the  printing. 


NEWBURYPORT:   VICTORY  WRESTED 
FROM   DEFEAT 


"Possessions  vanish  and  opinions  change, 

But,  by  the  storm  of  circumstance  unshaken, 

And  subject  neither  to  eclipse  nor  wane, 

Duty  exists"  — WORDSWORTH. 

"How  soon  a  smile  of  God  can  change  the  world! 

how  work 

Grows  play,  adversity  a  winning  fight." 

—  BROWNING. 

*'A  determined  man,  by  bis  very  attitude  and  the 
tone  of  his  voice,  puts  a  stop  to  defeat  and  begins  to  con- 
quer." —  EMERSON. 


VIII 

NEWBURYPORT:   VICTORY  WRESTED 
FROM   DEFEAT 

Stephen  had  a  longing  to  be  a  little  more  closely 
identified  with  the  actual  manufacturing  process.  In 
spite  of  his  success  in  pushing  the  work  into  larger 
area  and  winning  new  clientage,  he  reasoned  that 
there  would  be  ebb  as  well  as  flow  in  the  building 
enterprise.  At  times,  looking  ahead,  there  seemed 
to  be  considerable  venture  called  for.  If  he  could  only 
become  treasurer  of  some  concern,  that,  he  thought, 
would  be  an  arrangement  which  would  bring  in 
a  steadying  element,  while  he  could  still  continue 
to  direct  the  engineering  plans  of  the  office.  Such  an 
opening  seemed  to  offer  just  what  he  desired.  The 
Ocean  Mills  property  was  for  sale  in  Newbury- 
port,  Massachusetts.  A  company  was  formed,  made 
up  of  friends  and  business  acquaintances  who  had  con- 
fidence in  his  ability,  and  incorporated  under  the 
name  of  the  Whitefield  Mills.  Among  the  principal 
stockholders  was  Mr.  Seth  M.  Milliken,  a  commis- 
sion merchant  of  New  York,  whose  friendship,  advice, 
financial  support  at  this  time  and  in  after  years  were 
of  inestimable  value.  It  was  a  part  of  Stephen's  capi- 
tal that  he  could  win  his  way  to  the  confidence  of  the 
strongest  and  most  successful.  That  his  capital  was 
not  inflated  is  proved  by  the  uniform  treatment  which 

75 


76  STEPHEN   GREENE 

they  were  willing  to  accord  him  in  a  long  series 
of  years. 

In  November,  1886,  he  moved  his  family  to  New- 
buryport,  occupying  the  large  Papanti  mansion  on 
Broad  Street.  In  these  ample  quarters,  with  a  mill 
close  at  hand  to  bring  up  into  fine  working  order, 
and  an  engineering  office  through  which  he  could 
feel  out  into  the  great  manufacturing  world,  he  was 
happy  and  hopeful.  He  concluded  that  now  he  was 
on  a  good,  solid  basis.  Early  and  late  he  gave 
his  best  thought  to  the  renovation  and  starting 
up  of  the  mills.  He  expected  to  be  successful 
right  there  within  the  old  walls. 

What  a  pleasure  it  was  for  him  to  show  the  citizens 
of  the  town  that  he  had  come  to  be  one  of  them  in 
everything  good.  His  genial  manner,  his  business 
and  social  standing,  gave  him  swift  access  to  all 
hearts.  His  reputation  preceded  him.  But,  any- 
way, it  would  not  take  over  a  week  of  days,  including 
one  Sunday,  for  him  to  locate  himself  as  a  moral  force, 
so  that  the  town  might  know  just  where  to  find  him. 
He  used  to  laughingly  tell  of  a  ride  he  took  with 
Patrick,  a  coachman  left  over  from  the  family  whose 
house  he  occupied.  It  seemed  a  delight  for  the  driver 
to  go  by  the  large  houses  and  the  fine  church  build- 
ings and  speak  of  leading  families  and  elegant  con- 
gregations. By  and  by  they  happened  to  pass  the 
less  pretentious  Baptist  edifice,  and  Stephen  said, 
"Well,  Patrick,  here's  where  I  expect  to  go  to 
church."  After  a  few  seconds  of  thought,  the  Irish 


VICTORY  WRESTED  FROM   DEFEAT     77 

shrewdness,  which  Stephen  was  so  fond  of  putting 
to  the  test,  made  reply,  "  There  's  a  very  fine  con- 
gregation goes  there." 

The  many  and  spacious  rooms  of  this  house  made 
him  think  of  a  family  reunion,  and  the  first  Thanks- 
giving Day  we  were  all  there  in  the  most  delightful 
fellowship,  waking  echoes  of  song  and  laughter  in 
the  high  ceilings. 

Rev.  E.  E.  Thomas  was  finishing  his  pastorate  at 
the  time,  and  after  a  year  of  waiting  Rev.  L.  A.  Pope, 
a  persona]  friend  and  college  mate,  was  selected  as 
his  successor.  In  Pope's  large  heartedness,  flaming 
zeal,  and  practical  efficiency  Stephen  took  great  de- 
light. Whether  there  was  a  pastor  or  not  he  could 
be  counted  on  for  constant  and  generous  support  in 
presence,  in  testimony,  in  singing,  and  for  leadership 
in  any  necessary  benevolent  enterprise.  Wherever 
there  was  a  pastor,  to  him  he  was  loyal  "  to  the  core." 
His  home  was  open  for  committees,  socials,  enter- 
tainments. 

There  was  a  social,  literary  atmosphere  in  the 
place  which  he  very  much  enjoyed.  He  became 
a  member  of  the  Tuesday  Evening  Club,  which 
James  Parton,  the  author,  regularly  attended.  His 
various  trips  through  the  South  enabled  him  to  pre- 
sent interesting  papers  not  only  in  the  line  of  his 
own  business,  but  as  giving  expression  to  his  some- 
what modified  views  of  the  social  and  political  situ- 
ation. He  never  changed  from  his  early  New  England 
convictions,  so  far  as  ethical  fundamentals  were  con- 


78  STEPHEN    GREENE 

cerned,  but  he  learned  by  the  fireside  of  Southern 
homes  to  look  through  eyes  that  were  a  little  more 
charitable  in  specific  judgments. 

The  Whitefield  Mills  were  not  a  success.  When 
Stephen  began  to  realize  the  possibilities  that  were 
dimly  looming  in  the  distance,  he  was  troubled  in 
his  soul  beyond  the  power  of  words.  On  that  topic 
he  was  silent  at  first.  He  fought  the  battle  over 
and  over  in  his  mind.  He  had  gone  into  the  enter- 
prise with  sanguine  expectations,  shared  by  men 
of  much  larger  experience  in  manufacturing.  He 
had  expended  considerable  money  in  absolutely 
necessary  improvements.  He  had  worked  hard 
and  put  into  it  his  very  best  judgment.  He  had 
done  the  whole  of  what  he  could  with  the  means 
at  his  disposal.  It  was  still  a  patched -up  mill. 
The  bulk  of  its  machinery  was  old.  There  were 
old  adjustments  that  would  inevitably  militate  against 
the  highest  efficiency,  and  there  were  no  dividends  to 
pass  around.  He  thought  not  simply  of  his  own 
ambition.  He  thought  of  friends  who  had  made 
investment  there  on  his  account.  He  remembered 
the  flattering  words  sounded  abroad  in  Providence. 
His  business  reputation  was  at  stake. 

He  found  himself  at  his  third  Egyptian  expe- 
rience. Out  of  the  first  his  father  helped  him  when 
he  was  a  discouraged  overseer;  he  yielded  to  pa- 
ternal judgment,  gained  a  victory  over  himself,  and 
laid  foundation  for  after  mastery.  Out  of  the  sec- 
ond Mr.  Lockwood  led  him  with  the  assurance  that 


VICTORY  WRESTED   FROM   DEFEAT     79 

his  intrinsic  worth  was  noted  well,  adding  the  promise 
if  he  would  continue  faithful  right  where  he  was  a 
way  of  deliverance  would  open.  How  shall  he  get 
out  of  the  third?  He  knew  the  gloom  out  of  which 
this  sentence  has  its  birth,  "It  is  always  darkest  just 
before  day."  How  shall  he  get  out?  The  success 
of  the  Southern  mills,  the  growing  demand  for 
Northern  resource — these  thoughts  were  in  his  mind, 
rubbing  against  the  thought  of  his  failure  to  succeed. 
Right  there  at  the  friction  point  flashed  the  sug- 
gestion, providential,  if  you  please,  Why  not  box  up 
this  machinery,  load  freight  trains,  and  make  this 
part  and  parcel  of  a  new  plant  in  the  Southland? 
There  were  others  who  agreed  with  the  suggestion. 
There  were  still  others  who  looked  upon  it  as  an 
out  and  out  confession  of  failure,  and  more  than 
that,  they  thought  the  promise  in  the  moving  was 
less  radiant  than  in  staying.  But  when  the  matter 
was  thought  out  and  decided  upon,  optimism  once 
more  enthroned  itself  in  Stephen's  life,  and  its  right 
to  the  throne  from  that  time  forever  after  never 
came  in  question. 

Looking  back  upon  that  crisis,  in  connection 
with  all  that  went  before  and  all  that  has  followed 
since,  we  may  be  inclined  to  underestimate  the  storm 
and  stress  of  mind  through  which  he  passed.  Some 
one  may  say,  Oh,  he  knew  that  he  could  pull 
through.  He  did  know  it,  but  only  at  the  end  of 
tussle  of  thought,  wide  sweep  of  vision,  heart  to 
heart  conference  with  those  who  were  willing  to  bear 


8o  STEPHEN    GREENE 

and  share,  and  in  the  midst  of  it  his  knees  were 
often  bended  in  petition  that  God  would  add  his 
blessing.  I  quote  from  the  "  Textile  World":  "At 
the  time  when  Northern  manufacturers  had  not  fully 
appreciated  the  importance  of  Southern  competition 
in  certain  lines  of  goods,  Mr.  Greene  recognized  the 
advantages  possessed  by  the  South,  and  became  sat- 
isfied that  machinery  employed  on  the  class  of  goods 
made  at  Whitefield  Mills  could  be  operated  to  bet- 
ter advantage  in  the  South.  Acting  on  the  strength 
of  this  conviction  the  machinery  of  the  Whitefield 
Mills  was  moved  bodily  to  the  South  and  set  up  in 
the  Spartan  Mill.  This  was,  we  believe,  the  pioneer 
act  in  the  removal  of  a  complete  Northern  cotton 
mill  to  the  South.  The  subsequent  success  of  the 
Spartan  Mill  made  the  original  investment  in  the 
old  Ocean  Mill  plant  a  satisfactory  one." 

Victory  was  wrested  from  defeat.  His  father 
was  jostled  out  of  a  little  mill  privilege,  twelve  miles 
from  a  railroad,  and  the  same  to-day,  out  into  the 
great  world.  So  Providence,  with  a  hand  somewhat 
rough  like  that,  pushed  Stephen  from  his  office  of 
treasurer  of  the  Whitefield  Mills,  but  in  doing  so 
opened  the  way  for  him  to  establish  his  headquarters 
as  mill  engineer  and  architect  in  the  very  heart  of 
Boston,  where  at  that  time  centered,  to  a  large  ex- 
tent, the  cotton  manufacturing  interests  of  the  coun- 
try. Before,  he  became  rightly  placed  in  the  firm, 
now  the  firm  is  advantageously  placed  in  the  right 
city. 


BOSTON:  SETTLING  INTO  ASSURED 
PROSPERITY 


"His  gifts, 
Are  they  net  still,  in  some  degree,  rewards 

Of  service?" 

— WORDSWORTH. 

"  /  have  bad  a  beautiful  day — so  beautiful  that  labor, 
joy,  striving,  attaining,  are  one."  — GOETHE. 

"  The  Lord  shall  guide  tbee  continually,  and  satisfy 
thy  soul  in  drought,  and  make  fat  thy  bones ;  and  thou 
shalt  be  like  a  watered  garden  and  like  a  spring  of  water 
whose  waters  fail  not." — ISAIAH. 


IX 

BOSTON:    SETTLING  INTO  ASSURED 
PROSPERITY 

In  January,  1890,  he  took  possession  of  his  new 
Boston  office,  occupying  a  suite  of  rooms  on  the 
upper  floor  in  the  tower  of  the  Rialto  Building.  At 
this  time  he  became  sole  proprietor.  There  was  ven- 
ture in  binding  himself  to  such  a  rental.  He  spoke 
of  it  in  that  way  freely;  and  yet  there  was  an  under- 
tow of  growing  conviction  that  his  time  had  come 
for  boldness  and  for  claiming  his  share  of  the  world's 
well-earned  successes.  He  decided  to  establish  him- 
self in  a  center  accessible  to  coveted  clients,  and  to 
have  rooms  in  which  he  would  not  be  ashamed  to 
greet  the  greatest  among  them.  He  was  "  up  in 
the  world,"  for  a  visitor  had  to  climb  an  additional 
winding  flight  after  he  had  gone  as  far  as  the  elevator 
would  take  him ;  but  it  was  quiet  and  airy  when 
one  got  there,  and  the  finely  polished  plate,  with  the 
firm  name  in  bold  letters,  encouraged  any  one  with 
good  taste  to  take  that  extra  old-fashioned  way  of 
getting  upstairs. 

He  began  here  with  an  office  force  of  six  em- 
ployees. Here  he  adopted  stenography  and  the  type- 
writer to  facilitate  attending  to  what  had  grown  to 
be  laborious  correspondence.  Work  began  to  come 
to  him  in  a  larger  way  in  response  to  his  announce- 

83 


84  STEPHEN   GREENE 

ments  and  his  own  magnetic  personal  conferences. 
The  success  of  the  Spartanburg  project  brought  him 
into  notice  in  the  South.  Without  stopping  to  note 
the  stages  in  the  process,  it  may  be  said  that  not  only 
was  he  employed  as  engineer  and  architect  for  many 
of  the  finest  enterprises  of  the  South,  but  he  was 
also  held  in  such  confidence  that  Northern  capi- 
talists were  inclined  to  make  large  investments.  He 
grew  to  be  a  middleman  between  the  two  sections, 
trusted,  honored,  and  beloved  in  both,  as  testimo- 
nials, to  be  produced  later,  will  show.  "  The  ex- 
tent of  business  may  be  realized  when  it  is  known 
that  Lockwood,  Greene  &  Co.  have  built  mills  in 
the  South  alone  aggregating,  in  wholly  new  con- 
structions or  enlargements  to  existing  plants,  about 
two  million  spindles,  or  nearly  one-third  the  present 
spindle  capacity  of  the  South."  In  New  England 
many  large  mills  were  completely  reorganized,  e.  g., 
those  of  the  Pepperell  Manufacturing  Company  and 
Chicopee  Manufacturing  Company  and  the  Andros- 
coggin  Mills.  The  best  example  of  a  woolen  mill 
is  the  Washington  Mills  at  Lawrence,  though  be- 
longing to  an  earlier  date. 

One  of  the  interesting  features  of  his  success  is 
the  way  in  which  he  gradually  branched  out  from 
making  plans  for  cotton  mills  to  the  planning  for 
construction  of  other  works.  He  designed  bleach- 
eries,  dye-works,  and  print-works,  among  the  largest 
concerns  of  the  kind  in  the  country,  at  Lewiston, 
Maine;  at  Pawtucket,  Rhode  Island;  at  Norwich, 


SETTLING   INTO    PROSPERITY        85 

Connecticut;  at  Lodi  and  at  Rockaway,  New  Jersey. 
There  was  also  the  designing  of  such  plants  as 
Crompton  &  Knowles  Loom  Works ;  Plymouth 
Cordage  Company,  the  largest  in  the  world ;  Saco 
and  Pettee  Machine  Shops ;  the  Atlas  Tack  Co.'s 
factory;  Ginn  &  Co.,  publishing  plant;  the  Ameri- 
can Optical  Co.'s  new  buildings.  Indeed,  during 
the  last  year  of  his  life  he  had  in  the  office  work 
for  one  new  cotton  mill  in  the  North  and  two  only 
in  the  South.  He  was  reaching  out  in  a  cosmo- 
politan way  to  all  work  which  required  heavy  mill 
construction.  Not  every  year  was  a  good  year  to 
build  a  cotton  factory. 

He  remained  in  the  Rialto  Building  nine  years 
and  a  half.  Crowded  for  space,  he  had  the  floor 
above  fitted  for  a  draughting-room,  but  even  that 
was  not  sufficient  to  keep  up  with  the  business,  and 
in  June,  1 900,  he  rented  the  entire  sixth  floor  of  a 
newly  renovated  building  at  No.  93  Federal  Street. 
This  he  arranged  with  consummate  skill  and  pains- 
taking method  and  care  with  a  view  to  convenience 
and  swift  efFective  pushing  of  a  large  volume  of 
work.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  an  office  suite  that 
gave  a  better  impression  of  the  solid  and  the  elegant. 
When  I  saw  him  at  last,  in  the  inner  private  office, 
sitting  at  the  mahogany  desk  with  a  great  pile  of 
correspondence  before  him,  a  smile  on  his  face  at 
my  entrance,  a  poise  in  all  his  bearing  that  indicated 
sense  of  mastery,  my  heart  said,  with  brotherly  pride 
and  admiration,  his  dream  of  years  is  realized. 


86  STEPHEN    GREENE 

His  success  was  due  in  great  part  to  his  person- 
ality. Over  and  above  the  knowledge  of  funda- 
mentals and  details,  as  technical  equipment,  he  saw 
clearly,  spoke  with  directness  and  frank  lucidity.  A 
contractor  said,  "One  word  from  Stephen  Greene  was 
worth  hours  of  discussion  with  other  men."  Another, 
"It  was  one-third  engineering  and  two-thirds  knowing 
how  to  approach  the  trade."  A  man  who  had  been 
his  strong  financial  backer  for  years  said,  "  Stephen 
Greene  carried  more  assets  in  his  face  than  any  man 
I  ever  knew.  If  you  can  tell  me  of  another  such 
man  I  will  go  a  good  way  to  see  him.  I  should 
like  to  know  if  I  must  correct  my  impressions  in 
this  matter."  His  face,  a  true  index  of  his  character, 
had  much  to  do  with  his  advancement.  The  face 
won  attention,  the  character  and  ability  behind  the 
face  then  had  a  chance  to  put  in  their  work.  But 
here  is  a  feature  which  must  not  be  left  unnoticed. 
In  a  letter  written  to  me  in  November,  1899,  ^e 
says :  "  My  business  next  year  will  be  limited  only 
by  my  strength  and  the  capacity  of  my  office  to 
carry  it  on.  I  am  grateful  for  the  privilege.  I  pray 
for  strength  and  wisdom  to  walk  in  the  fear  of  God  in 
my  business." 

He  knew  not  only  how  to  approach  the  trade, 
but  how  to  treat  those  whom  he  employed.  For 
every  one  who  honestly  tried  to  do  his  tasks  well 
he  had  a  feeling  in  which  brotherhood  nestled  close 
to  the  relationship  of  employer.  To  his  entire  force 
he  was  accustomed  to  give  an  annual  dinner  and 


SETTLING   INTO    PROSPERITY        87 

entertainment  of  some  kind,  and  all  who  knew  him 
know  it  was  the  best.  His  show  of  good  will  was 
not  perfunctory  or  an  annual  thing.  He  put  it  into 
his  "good  morning"  every  day.  And  to  those  to 
whom  he  was  especially  indebted,  because  of  their 
superior  skill,  long  service,  and  growing  usefulness, 
he  had  other  substantial  ways  of  showing  his  appre- 
ciation. His  aim  was  to  make  every  client  a  friend, 
as  that  was  the  best  advertisement,  and  to  retain  in 
his  employ  all  excellent  workers.  He  knew  this 
secret  to  perfection. 

But  let  me  reach  back  and  bring  up  into  close 
fellowship  with  all  this  business  side  of  his  career 
the  manifold  phases  of  the  other  side:  that  touching 
home,  church,  friendship,  educational,  and  benevolent 
activity.  This  latter  side  inspired  the  professional. 
In  actual  life  they  were  not  walled  apart.  He  was 
always  an  entire  man.  Excellence  at  every  point 
contributed  to  the  richness  of  the  whole.  His  religion 
got  into  his  business ;  his  business  made  itself  felt  in 
his  religion. 

For  three  months  after  moving  his  office  to  Bos- 
ton his  home  was  continued  in  Newburyport.  That 
was  too  far  away.  Where  shall  he  locate  ?  To  the 
problem  he  gave  thorough  study.  He  wanted  to 
fix  upon  a  location  that  would  be  right  for  years. 
Nearness  to  business,  quiet  church  privileges,  school 
advantages;  all  these  were  factors.  He  fixed  upon 
Newton  Centre,  and  in  April,  1 890,  moved  to  a  house 
on  Gibbs  Street.  And  when  fairlv  settled  there  I  never 


STEPHEN    GREENE 


heard  him  once  give  utterance  to  a  shadow  of  regret. 
He  fitted  into  the  environment  as  a  plant  indigenous 
to  the  soil.  Home  always  had  a  profound  and  tender 
meaning.  He  wanted  his  home  to  be  as  comfortable, 
as  cheerful,  as  loving,  as  hospitable,  as  sacred  a  spot 
as  he  could  possibly  make  it. 

He  wanted  the  best  schools  near  by  and  a  live 
church.  L.  C.  Barnes  was  a  pastor  after  his  own 
heart.  Many  a  time  on  a  Monday  morning  have 
I  listened  to  his  account  of  the  day  before  —  some- 
thing in  the  line  of  practical  religion — which,  you 
may  be  sure,  did  not  lose  anything  in  the  recital. 
His  office  to  me  was  often  converted  into  a  sounding- 
board,  reproducing,  in  resonant  echo,  the  good  things 
of  meetings  South  as  well  as  North.  The  good  things 
of  the  Sunday  before  were  sure  to  be  rehearsed  with 
enthusiastic  emphasis.  He  loved  to  work  with  a  re- 
ligious leader  who  had  zeal  and  common  sense. 
Virtually  the  church  was  an  annex  to  his  home. 
He  no  more  thought  of  staying  away  from  the 
services  than  from  the  dining-room. 

He  soon  became  Sunday  school  superintendent, 
and  was  also  elected  deacon.  He  was  always  enthusi- 
astic in  the  beneficence  of  the  church.  As  superin- 
tendent he  led  the  school  into  special  interest  in 
the  Bethel  work,  and  if  there  happened  to  be  no 
pastor  it  seemed  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world 
for  him  to  step  out  in  front  of  the  congregation, 
give  his  own  generous  pledge,  and  say,  "  Come, 
brethren,  let  us  do  a  noble  thing  for  the  Missionary 


SETTLING   INTO    PROSPERITY        89 

Union  "  or  "  the  Home  Mission  Society  ";  and  the 
pledges  were  sure  to  come  in  such  amounts  as  to 
make  the  secretaries'  hearts  rejoice.  He  understood 
he  had  a  power,  as  layman,  which  ministers  cannot 
have.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  was  beginning 
to  get  on  to  a  financial  basis  where  he  could  do 
what  it  was  in  his  heart  to  do.  Heretofore  it  was 
largely  laying  foundation ;  but  all  along  even,  it  was 
not  so  much  what  he  could  actually  give  in  dollars 
and  cents,  he  could  make  himself  into  a  key  and 
unlock  the  hearts  and  pocket-books  of  richer  men. 
He  found  delightful  fellowship  among  his  neigh- 
bors, and  became  an  active  member  of  the  Neigh- 
bors' Club. 

The  year  1892  was  an  eventful  one.  On  May  id 
we  all  went  to  Thompson,  Connecticut,  to  celebrate 
the  golden  wedding  of  father  and  mother.  It  was 
a  double  golden  wedding,  for  Uncle  Hiram  and  his 
wife  were  married  at  the  same  time.  Stephen,  then 
as  usual,  was  in  the  center  of  things.  His  old  home 
love  was  fed  with  that  event.  Again  I  read  rhymes. 
He  had  suggested,  and  he  led  off  in  placing  gold 
coin  in  the  hands  of  mother,  thought  of  whom  in 
after  years,  especially  when  she  was  infirm,  always 
breathed  tenderness  into  his  voice  and  moistened  his 
eyes  into  brilliancy  which  all  could  easily  interpret. 

That  summer  he  and  his  wife,  with  Mr.  Denny 
and  family,  went  to  Europe.  It  was  a  reach  out 
into  the  larger  world.  It  was  rest  and  recreation, 
but  it  was  also  an  opportunity  to  study  some  of  the 


9o  STEPHEN    GREENE 

great  manufactories  of  Old  England.  He  coveted 
travel  not  simply  as  recreation,  but  to  push  the  hori- 
zon of  his  life  farther  back. 

It  had  been  the  desire  of  his  heart  some  time  to 
have  a  home  of  his  own.  It  was  in  this  same  year 
that  he  began  to  build  on  Centre  Street,  where  the 
home  now  stands.  The  family  moved  into  it  in 
May,  1893.  Fortunately,  a  little  while  afterward, 
Commonwealth  Boulevard  was  opened,  and  he  found 
part  of  his  estate  fronting  on  that  central  thorough- 
fare. He  loved  the  best  well  enough  to  give  him- 
self repeated  congratulation  on  what  turned  out  to 
be  a  better  location  than  even  he  had  anticipated. 
In  this  house  Frederick  Hartwell  was  born  Novem- 
ber jd  of  that  same  year.  Every  baby  brought 
rejuvenescence  to  the  paternal  heart.  He  loved  to 
have  his  boys  about  him ;  and  when  they  were  so 
comfortably  housed  in  such  a  community,  why  need 
the  question  come  up  so  very  early  as  to  whether 
the  two  older  boys  should  fit  for  college  there  or  go 
away  from  home  ?  Here  came  in  the  forward  look 
he  was  always  taking,  "  What  will  be  the  best  in 
the  end?" 

He  consulted  not  simply  temporary  pleasure  or 
comfort.  He  felt  that  the  boys  would  gain  some- 
thing in  personal  independence  and  resource  in  a 
good  academy;  and  so  Edwin  and  Harold  had  their 
preparation  for  Brown  at  Worcester.  Did  the  father 
live  in  his  boys  ?  Let  those  answer  who  used  to  know 
him,  who  knew  what  he  did  for  them,  how  feelingly 


SETTLING   INTO    PROSPERITY        91 

and  now  and  then  with  what  pride  he  would  speak 
of  them. 

What  was  he  to  me,  when  it  became  so  easy  to 
run  into  his  office  for  a  little  chat !  His  heart  was 
swift  to  come  near  my  heart.  "  There  was  no  other 
phrase  to  express  it ";  "  The  soul  of  Stephen  was 
knit  with  the  soul  of  Benjamin."  There  are  few 
things  better  for  a  minister  than  to  have  a  brother 
who,  some  people  thought,  might  also  be  a  minister, 
but  who  remained  a  layman,  and  did  more  good  than 
two  or  three  ordained  men.  Here  is  one  of  his 
refrains  I  shall  never  forget:  "  Ben,  let  yourself  out." 
For  a  preacher  to  drop  into  such  a  brother's  office 
is  to  "connect  with  the  central."  Here  are  the  lines 
he  once  quoted  to  me  with  the  emphasis  of  a  prophet : 

"  It  may  not  be  my  way  ; 
It  may  not  be  thy  way; 
But  yet,  in  His  own  way, 
The  Lord  will  provide." 

And  he  believed  it  in  every  fibre  of  his  being. 

Optimistic  talk  in  his  office,  in  some  respects, 
was  like  a  shower-bath  on  an  October  morning,  the 
dawn  of  a  radiant  day.  He  gave  tonic,  not  "taffy." 
Older  than  he,  at  first  I  did  a  little  counseling.  I 
said:  "Do  not  become  a  business  machine.  Keep 
in  touch  with  what  home  and  church  gave  you,  and 
college  life.  If  success  comes,  be  a  William  E. 
Dodge  kind  of  a  man  ;  strengthen  and  lengthen  and 
widen  the  foundations  of  religion,  education,  benefi- 


92  STEPHEN   GREENE 

cence."  I  did  not  have  to  argue,  urge.  I  found  him 
already  cherishing  such  high  aims.  I  stood  on  New- 
ton Hill,  the  day  after  he  was  buried,  looked  about 
me,  and  thanked  God  I  saw  his  aims  in  part  fulfilled. 

As  time  went  on  and  brought  its  changes,  life's 
deeper  levels  came  to  view.  Our  companionships 
became  greater,  richer  with  experience.  The  national 
Baptist  Anniversaries  had  almost  a  halo  because  we 
two  could  room  together,  or  near  each  other,  and 
reopen  the  hallowed  conferences  of  brother  hearts. 
What  precious  talks !  Whatever  room  we  were  in, 
it  was  the  anteroom  of  heaven.  He  would  say,  "  O 
Ben,  think  of  it !  a  few  years  ago  we  were  in  the 
little  village,  hemmed  up  in  a  corner.  Think  of 
what  God  has  wrought."  We  knelt.  We  thanked 
God.  As  he  rose  from  his  knees  he  began  to  plan 
what  he  would  do  for  others  in  more  prosperous 
days.  And  now,  these  past  five  years,  since  we  have 
been  a  thousand  miles  apart,  we  have  learned  anew 
the  art  of  letter-writing.  For  me  to  put  his  name 
at  the  head  of  a  sheet  of  paper  invited  a  deep  inte- 
rior set  of  mental  and  emotional  processes  to  begin 
their  work.  I  can  truly  say  that  to  think  of  him  and 
write  drew  out  the  best  my  soul  could  find  within  itself. 

His  occasional  visits,  when  on  his  way  home 
from  the  South,  visits  preceded  by  telegram,  made 
tense  by  their  brevity,  were  something  like  the  ap- 
parition under  the  oak  at  Mamre.  The  following 
is  an  extract  from  a  letter  written  to  him  after  such 
a  visit  in  April,  1899.  I  give  it  because  it  belongs 


SETTLING   INTO    PROSPERITY        93 

to  one  of  a  few  he  sorted  out  as  giving  special  joy: 
"  Your  visit  was  like  riding  up  to  a  corner,  country 
village  store,  where  the  post-office  is  kept,  out  of  the 
shadowed  road,  in  from  the  country  farm,  up  to  the 
lighted  corner.  How  bright  the  light!  How  merry 
and  jovial  the  voices  of  men  and  maidens  waiting 
for  the  mail.  In  a  little  while  every  bit  of  stuff  is 
given  out.  Conversation  dies  away  in  the  distance. 
The  shutters  slam  to  their  places.  The  key  clicks 
in  the  lock.  Dull  footsteps  are  heard  rinding  their 
way  from  the  store  level  to  home  level.  A  little 
light  lingers  a  bit  upstairs,  then  that  is  put  out. 
The  once  lighted  corner  stands  out  under  a  dark 
sky.  All  is  still  save  now  and  then  the  stamp  of  the 
horse  in  the  barn  and  a  lonely  bark  of  the  dog  at 
intervals.  Just  so.  It  makes  a  difference  whether 
faces  are  turned  toward  you  and  you  yourself  are  in 
the  light,  or  whether,  presto,  backs  are  seen  retreat- 
ing and  the  lights  go  out.  It  is  not  exactly  black 
midnight,  but  we  missed  you,  as  we  always  do  when 
we  must  separate." 

What  a  delight  it  was  for  him  to  take  his  broth- 
ers, his  old-time  college  friends,  like  E.  P.  Farnham, 
Robert  Martin,  particularly  some  acquaintance  in 
the  midst  of  a  struggle,  to  the  Exchange  Club  or  to 
Young's.  There  was  furnished  a  repast  which  some- 
times almost  seemed  let  down  from  above,  such  a 
rich  feast  it  was  of  good  food  and  royal  fellowship 
which  made  the  soul  surer  of  fulfilling  heaven-set 
tasks. 


94  STEPHEN    GREENE 

Of  course  such  a  person  was  in  demand,  in  spe- 
cial meetings,  social  functions,  conventions,  com- 
mittee work.  He  was  on  important  committees  of 
the  Boston  Baptist  Social  Union,  and  became  its 
president  for  the  year  1 893.  He  was  always  prompt, 
clear  headed,  fair  in  ruling,  genial  in  manner.  He 
considered  the  business  of  a  presiding  officer  to  pre- 
side. With  a  few  well  chosen  words  he  presented 
speakers  and  business.  He  did  not  stand  in  the 
way,  he  was  more  like  transparent  plate-glass.  For 
three  years,  beginning  in  1897,  he  was  the  president 
of  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society. 
When  his  name  is  mentioned  to-day  among  Baptist 
leaders  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  men  think 
and  speak  spontaneously  of  the  nearness  of  his  ap- 
proach to  the  ideal  in  that  situation. 

During  the  period  of  his  presidency  of  the  Home 
Mission  Society,  at  its  meeting  held  in  Detroit,  he 
devoted  his  opening  address  to  certain  features  of 
work  which  demanded  closer  co-ordination  of  the 
several  denominational  missionary  organizations. 
His  love  for  the  work  as  a  whole,  his  business  in- 
stinct for  comprehensive  and  economic  methods 
prompted  the  address.  He  was  the  antipodes  of  a 
revolutionist.  His  whole  object  was  to  conserve 
the  best  and  make  it  better.  He  was  also  voicing  a 
growing  sentiment.  His  candid  presentation  of  the 
matter  led  to  the  appointment  of  a  representative 
committee  and,  as  well,  to  widespread  discussion. 
He  was  elected  chairman  of  the  committee,  and  gave 


SETTLING   INTO    PROSPERITY       95 

to  the  work  as  he  always  did,  the  best  that  was  in 
him.  He  spared  neither  time,  labor,  nor  expense. 
The  meeting  at  Springfield  the  following  year  was  a 
disappointment  and  a  severe  tax  on  his  already 
overworked  nervous  system.  There  was  the  same 
genial  equipoise  and  calm  lucidity  of  statement,  but 
they  had  to  be  paid  for  in  the  quintessence  of  vital- 
ity. A  vision  of  his  face  will,  to  the  minds  of  some, 
hover  over  all  future  discussions  of  this  subject. 

The  work  he  did  for  Newton  Theological  Institu- 
tion will  probably  stand  first  outside  of  his  business 
enterprises.  Moving  into  close  proximity,  and  be- 
ing a  man  of  practical  affairs,  especially  in  planning 
and  construction,  he  was  laid  hold  of  with  expecta- 
tion at  an  opportune  time.  Every  man  living  who 
was  his  associate  for  the  last  eight  years  will  say  he 
met  that  expectation  and  more.  It  fell  into  line 
with  the  ambition  of  his  life  to  be  useful  to  the  cause 
of  Christ  in  an  educational  way.  He  had  brothers 
in  the  ministry,  he  had  among  his  college  mates 
bosom  companions  who  were  ministers.  His  pas- 
tors had  been  such  as  to  keep  his  early  love  alive : 
B.  O.  True,  Richard  Montague,  L.  A.  Pope,  L.  C. 
Barnes,  E.  Y.  Mullins,  E.  D.  Burr.  He  himself 
had  been  thought  of  as  a  possible  preacher.  Like 
some  other  laymen  of  that  stamp,  what  he  did  for 
theological  education  was  the  choice  spontaneity  of 
his  soul. 

In  1896  mother  died.  Through  the  gateway  of 
Granite  Farm  we  boys  again  carried  sacred  dust  to 


96  STEPHEN    GREENE 

its  resting-place.  I  never  think  of  her  and  him 
together  but  there  comes  to  my  mind  a  picture  of 
the  red,  wide,  easy  couch  which  he,  with  tenderest 
thought,  selected  for  comfort  in  her  infirmity.  In 
1898  brother  Albert  died.  Every  thought  of  him 
to-day  leads  in  an  instant's  flash  to  Stephen's  quick 
advice  and  generous  aid  which  made  the  venture  of 
a  Southern  climate  possible.  It  was  these  losses 
that  helped  deepen  life's  seriousness,  and  made  family 
relationships  take  on  a  more  hallowed  tone.  In  a 
letter  written  to  me  after  all  was  over,  he  said:  "The 
memory  of  his  conscientious  work  will  be  an  inspi- 
ration to  me  as  long  as  I  live.  We  must  close  up 
the  ranks  and  in  our  sympathy  and  feeling  come,  if 
possible,  a  little  nearer  together  for  the  balance  of 
the  time  that  is  left  to  us  four." 

In  the  summer  vacation,  1900,  we  four  brothers 
agreed  to  meet  in  Providence  and  take  a  trip  we 
long  had  planned.  We  wanted  once  more  to  see 
the  scenes  of  boyhood.  We  took  cars  to  Phenix 
and  there  found  horses  in  waiting.  We  saw  the 
hilltop,  where  the  old  Baptist  meeting-house  used 
to  stand.  Then  we  went  to  Lippitt  where  father 
first  "topped  cards,"  to  the  mill  at  Harrisville 
where  he  became  overseer,  to  the  house  where  I  was 
born.  At  Hope,  Stephen  begged  the  privilege  of 
entering  the  cottage  where  he  first  saw  light.  How 
he  towered  and  how  his  face  shone  in  the  small,  low- 
ceiling  room.  The  mother  and  the  children  then 


SETTLING   INTO    PROSPERITY       97 

living  there  who  received  his  silver  will  remember 
that  vision  of  a  perfect  gentleman  to  their  dying  day. 
Then  we  rode  seven  miles  to  the  Island,  North 
Scituate ;  saw  the  white  school-house  where  he  spoke 
his  first  piece,  the  drear-looking  house  where  he 
lived  forty-five  years  before,  and  the  hole  in  the 
ground  where  the  old  water-wheel  mournfully  turned 
after  the  fire.  What  a  day  of  flooding  memories, 
suggestive  contrasts,  and  fraternal  fellowship. 

Little  did  we  know  that  that  was  the  last  time  we 
four  brothers  would  ride  in  happy  companionship. 
Why  should  it  be?  Every  friend  who  saw  us 
remarked  upon  the  solid  health  apparent.  And 
certainly  to  look  at  Stephen's  face,  to  note  the 
firmness  of  his  tread,  to  hear  the  resonance  and 
rollick  thrill  in  the  tone  of  his  voice  one  would  say, 
health,  victorious  life  for  years  to  come.  A  few 
weeks  later  as  one  saw  him,  at  East  Alton,  leading 
a  service  of  song  on  Sunday  afternoon  one  would 
repeat  the  verdict  with  emphasis.  I  see  him  now. 
He  has  just  returned  from  church,  leading  a  goodly 
company,  partly  by  invitation  and  largely  by  con- 
tagion of  geniality,  to  his  summer  home  near  by. 
The  organ  is  rolled  out  on  the  veranda.  Chairs  are 
brought  out,  some  from  Louis  Pope's,  next  door. 
There,  overlooking  Lake  Winnepesaukee  and  the 
encircling  mountains,  his  towering  form,  his  radiant 
face,  his  musical,  jubilant  voice,  led  the  company, 
and  at  the  close  when  we  sang 


98  STEPHEN    GREENE 

"  I  love  thy  rocks  and  rills, 
Thy  woods  and  templed  hills; 
My  heart  with   rapture  thrills 
Like  that  above," 

he  seemed  almost  transfigured.  He  was  a  Christian, 
he  was  a  patriot,  he  was  a  singer,  and  standing  there 
in  his  own  home  among  his  friends,  in  that  beautiful 
region,  singing  "America,"  he  spontaneously  lifted 
himself  to  an  ecstasy  of  grateful  exultation. 


THE   LAST   YEAR   OF   WORK 


"  Whatever  any  one  does  or  says,  I  must  be  good; 
just  as  if  the  emerald  were  always  saying  this:  What- 
ever any  one  does  or  says,  I  must  be  an  emerald  and 
keep  my  color."  —  MARCUS  AURELIUS. 

"As  once  be  found  himself  among  his  toys,  so  now  he 
plays  a  part  in  colossal  systems,  and  bis  growth  is  declared 
in  bis  ambition,  bis  companions,  and  bis  performances. 
He  looks  like  a  piece  of  luck,  but  is  a  piece  of  causa- 
tion" —  EMERSON. 

"He  could  afford  to  suffer 

With  those  whom  be  saw  suffer.      Hence  it  came 
That  in  our  best  experience  be  was  rich, 
And  in  the  wisdom  of  our  daily  life" 

—  WORDSWORTH. 


THE    LAST   YEAR    OF  WORK 

The  last  year  of  work  opened  auspiciously;  but 
there  was  deep  down  in  his  feelings  a  growing  sense 
that  limitations  of  strength  were  now  and  then 
touched.  It  was  vague,  not  definite  enough  for 
a  conviction,  certainly  not  serious  enough  to  awaken 
apprehension.  His  good  wife  detected  his  need,  and 
besought  him  to  throw  up  a  number  of  outside  duties 
and  cares ;  but  he  would  so  quickly  rally  from  fatigue, 
his  native  buoyancy  would  so  soon  assert  itself,  and 
his  heart  was  so  wrapped  up  in  the  many  good 
causes  that  he  would  push  on,  promising  himself, 
in  the  near  future,  a  good,  long  vacation.  In  his 
letters  he  admitted  that  dark,  damp  days  and  the 
approach  of  winter  had  more  of  an  effect  upon  him 
than  in  former  years.  He  sought  in  one  way  and 
another  to  keep  in  bodily  trim.  Here  is  what  he 
wrote  me  a  few  months  previous:  "I'm  getting 
a  little  extravagant.  You  will  think  so  when  I  tell 
you  that  I  have  bought  a  new  saddle-horse,  and 
he  is  a  beauty  —  a  Kentucky  horse  with  all  the 
gaits,  and  some  of  them  as  easy  as  a  cradle.  I  am 
going  to  try  to  have  my  liver  shaken  up  periodically 
and  get  rid  of  sick  headaches,  and  all  other  ills  that 
my  flesh  is  heir  to."  But  the  old  story  repeated 
itself  in  his  case.  Many  a  day  the  horse  would 


102  STEPHEN    GREENE 

stand   in   the   barn   unused,   while   the   master  was 
wearing  himself  out  with  overwork. 

In  April,  1 901,  he  writes :  "  I  am  as  busy  as  ever, 
rushing  from  morning  until  night  with  committee 
meetings,  commission  meetings,  and  all  sorts  of  meet- 
ings outside  of  business  in  the  office."  But  he  adds : 
"Our  plans  are  maturing  slowly;  we  hope  to  sail 
July  3d  for  Liverpool  and  spend  our  time  largely 
in  England.  We  hope  to  get  two  or  three  weeks 
in  London,  and  the  rest  of  the  time  making  stops 
of  several  days  in  some  quiet  centers  where  we  are 
in  easy  reach  of  interesting  localities."  Two  outside 
things  he  especially  desires  faithfully  to  attend  to 
before  he  departs,  Newton  endowment,  commission 
on  co-ordination.  Both  of  these  received  his  heart's 
blood.  And  in  the  midst  of  all  this  final  rush  came 
father's  fatal  illness.  At  first  we  knew  not  how  the 
case  would  turn,  but  with  June's  advance  it  was 
made  sure  that  the  end  was  drawing  near.  This 
brought  an  added  wrench  to  Stephen's  heart.  All 
plans  for  the  tour  had  been  made  and  berths  engaged. 
Doctor  and  friends  insisted  that  it  was  necessary  that 
he  should  go.  As  often  as  he  could  he  hurried  down 
to  Westerly  for  a  brief  stay  ;  he  did  everything  a  son 
could  do;  not  then  only,  he  had  been  doing  it  all 
along.  What  troubled  him  beyond  expression  was 
to  have  the  appearance  of  starting  off  for  Europe 
and  father  dying  in  the  old  home.  That  question, 
however,  settled  itself.  Father  had  his  desire  granted 
June  27th.  Panting  for  breath  gave  way  to  the 


THE   LAST   YEAR   OF    WORK        103 

easy  breath  of  a  child.  Granite  Farm  gave  way  to 
heaven. 

The  last  time  I  saw  Stephen  was  that  Saturday 
afternoon  after  the  funeral.  We  said  our  farewell 
at  the  station,  expecting  to  meet  each  other  at  the 
steamer  in  Boston  on  the  following  Wednesday. 
The  losing  of  a  train  in  Providence,  the  unprece- 
dented heat  of  the  day,  combined  to  keep  me 
from  that  looked-for  privilege.  It  was  one  of  the 
sorest  disappointments  of  my  life.  When  I  afterward 
he?,rd  of  his  walking  up  and  down  the  wharf  amid  the 
throng,  and  anxiously  scanning  the  crowd  from  the 
steamer's  deck  to  catch  a  view  of  my  face  my  heart 
was  sick.  I  have  said  many  a  time  since,  "  O,  that 
I  had  got  there,  if  only  in  time  to  wave  my  hand 
to  him  in  the  distance,  and  let  him  know  once  more 
I  loved  him." 

All  his  family,  with  the  exception  of  Harold, 
went  with  him  on  this  tour.  Mr.  Fred  Hartwell, 
a  long-time  friend,  and  his  family  were  also  in  the 
company.  In  the  main,  he  carried  out  his  program. 
However,  in  a  letter  written  in  London,  August  I9th, 
he  says :  "  I  was  practically  laid  aside  for  a  week  in 
Buxton  and  Malvern,  and  felt  miserable  and  very 
weak;  I  realize  that  I  acted  wisely  in  taking  the 
rest,  and  I  am  sure  I  stopped  none  too  soon.  I  trust 
the  trip  will  do  us  all  good,  and  that  I  shall  return 
with  renewed  strength  ready  for  the  tasks  that  await 
me."  The  letter  ends  in  this  way  :  "  We  leave  here 
September  id,  and  go  up  through  cathedral  towns 


104  STEPHEN   GREENE 

to  Edinburgh.  Then  a  little  stay  in  Scotland,  and 
wind  up  in  the  English  lake  regions,  and  sail  Septem- 
ber 26th  on  the  'New  England.'  The  second  day  of 
the  voyage  I  will  reach  my  fiftieth  birthday.  My ! 
that  seems  old,  but  I  do  not  feel  old.  Do  you?  " 

Friends  who  met  him  in  England  after  that  week 
of  illness,  among  them  Dr.  L.  A.  Crandall  and  wife 
of  Chicago,  judged  from  his  looks,  animation,  and 
eagerness  for  a  tramp  that  he  must  be  in  the  best 
of  health ;  but  there  was  trouble  lurking  of  a  subtle 
form. 

Here  are  a  last  few  words  in  his  "  Notes,  Sum- 
mer 1901,"  a  little  book  giving  a  condensed  account 
of  the  three  months'  experiences  :  "  Harold  and  Lil- 
lian met  us  at  the  steamer,  also  Mr.  Harris.  Oscar 
drove  in,  and  we  rode  home  in  our  own  carriage, 
arriving  at  Newton  Centre  about  11:45.  Glad  to 
get  home."  The  underlining  is  his  own. 


FINAL   HOME-COMING 


"Alas!  Hoiv  short  life  and  bow  long  art.  I  feel 
as  if  I  bad  just  begun  to  understand  bow  to  write,  and 
the  probability  is  I  have  very  nearly  done  writing. ' ' 

— MACAULAY. 

"  Life's  rate  well  run, 
Life's  work  well  done. 
Life's  crown  well  won, 
Now  comes  rest.1' 

"  So,  dearest,  now  thy  brows  are  cold, 

I  know  tbee,  what  tbou  art,  and  know 
Thy  likeness  to  the  wise  below, 
Thy  kindred  with  the  great  of  old. ' ' 

— TENNYSON. 

"  /  say  the  tomb,  which  on  the  dead  is  shut, 

Opens  the  heavenly  ball ; 
And  what  we  here  for  end  of  all  things  put 
Is  the  first  step  ef  all." 

— VICTOR  HUGO. 


XI 
FINAL   HOME-COMING 

Everybody  was  glad  to  have  him  return.  Friends 
had  sent  flowers  for  every  room  downstairs.  There 
was  a  beautiful  basket  of  fruit ;  an  immense  basket 
of  green  corn  came  from  a  business  friend  who 
remembered  with  what  lavish  hand  Stephen  had 
been  wont  to  send  out  garden  gifts ;  cards  and 
notes  of  welcome  in  profusion ;  while  that  day,  and 
through  the  week,  callers  continued  to  shower  them 
with  their  greetings.  But  probably  that  which 
touched  him  in  the  tenderest  spot  was  this :  in 
a  few  minutes  after  his  arrival  he  went  up  with  his 
wife  to  see  the  new  desk  which  he  had  ordered. 
There  it  was  in  its  beauty  and  largeness,  while  above 
it  hung,  for  the  first  time  to  his  vision,  the  speaking 
portrait  of  mother,  brought  from  Granite  Farm.  He 
sat  down,  rolled  back  the  top,  and  there  he  saw 
spread  before  him  this  statement: 

FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH 
RESOLUTION  PASSED  OCTOBER,  1901 

This  church  learned  with  anxious  hearts  of  the  illness 
of  our  esteemed  and  loved  brother  Stephen  Greene,  during 
his  absence  this  summer  in  England,  and  now,  rejoicing 
in  the  knowledge  that  he  is  soon  coming  again  to  us  in 
renewed  health  and  strength,  extends  by  formal  vote  its 

107 


io8  STEPHEN    GREENE 

cordial  welcome  to  him  and  his  household  to  their  home 
and  church,  and  express  hereby  the  cordial  love  and  appre- 
ciation in  which  he  and  his  are  held  by  all  in  its  membership. 
The  clerk  is  hereby  instructed  to  communicate  this 
vote'to  Brother  Greene  upon  his  arrival  at  home. 

F.  H.  HOVEY,  Clerk. 

He  turned  to  his  wife  and  said,  "Why,  do  see 
this !  I  never  knew  the  church  to  do  anything  like 
it  before.  Most  people  have  to  wait  until  they  are 
dead  and  gone  before  appreciation  is  shown,  but  it 
has  come  to  me  in  my  lifetime."  The  members 
that  passed  that  vote  have  rejoiced  ever  since  that 
they  did  it  and  gave  him  joy. 

He  was  somewhat  wearied  with  the  voyage  and 
thought  he  would  start  in  easily  in  business.  He 
caught  cold,  however,  and  was  kept  at  home  for 
days  together.  I  quote  from  a  letter  written  me 
October  joth:  "It  seems  a  little  ridiculous  to  take 
about  a  month  to  get  over  a  three  months'  rest.  I 
suppose,  however,  the  real  significance  of  the  whole 
matter  is,  that  while  I  thought  I  was  thoroughly 
rested  and  completely  well  when  I  came  home,  my 
general  health  and  vigor  was  not  up  to  the  standard, 
and  when  this  little  distemper  got  hold  of  me  it  got 
a  pretty  severe  grip.  The  chief  feature  seemed  to 
be  that  it  affected  my  lung  and  heart  action  so  that 
when  I  went  upstairs  or  walked  any  distance  it  made 
me  puff  like  a  porpoise."  He  consulted  specialists 
and  tried  to  conform  to  every  wise  suggestion.  They 
pronounced  him  subject  to  no  organic  disease.  He 


FINAL    HOME-COMING  109 

took  rides  in  the  carriage  and  on  horseback.  He 
wanted  something  to  do,  so  he  planned  for  the  Sun- 
day school,  had  the  teachers  invited  to  a  conference 
and  refreshments,  worked  on  a  program  for  a 
Christmas  entertainment.  The  last  Sunday,  Novem- 
ber 3d,  he  attended  church  and  took  charge  of  the 
Sunday  school.  That  day  also  he  gave  a  Bible  to 
his  youngest  son,  Hartwell,  and  wrote  his  name  in  it. 

On  the  morning  of  November  6th  the  crisis 
came.  He  had  on  two  or  three  occasions  suffered 
from  dizziness,  but  this  proved  to  be  the  last.  The 
nerves  that  govern  the  action  of  the  heart  lost  con- 
trol. During  the  day  and  far  into  the  night  his 
mind  was  perfectly  clear.  In  addition  to  his  own 
physician,  Dr.  Sylvester,  his  beloved  brother  Ray, 
a  physician  in  Worcester,  was  a  great  comfort  to 
him.  They  did  all  that  love  and  skill  could  do. 
When  Ray  asked  in  the  late  evening,  "  How  is  your 
courage?"  he  looked  up  and  said,  with  rallying 
vigor  in  the  midst  of  his  rapid  breathing,  "  Good,  if 
there's  any  chance."  At  last,  early  on  Thursday 
morning,  November  7,  1901,  life  left  its  earthly 
tenement  quietly,  instantly,  as  the  flame  of  a  candle 
goes  out  when  smitten  with  a  breath. 

The  day  before,  November  6th,  was  my  birth- 
day. I  had  been  saying,  sometimes  in  my  heart, 
sometimes  with  my  lips,  "  O,  if  he  were  here,  as  he 
was  two  years  ago."  Then  I  comforted  myself:  "'A 
thousand  miles  away,  but  the  old  love  is  still  there. 
Did  I  not  have  a  letter  from  him  last  week,  one 


no  STEPHEN   GREENE 

that  could  come  from  his  heart  alone?  There  are 
times  ahead."  I  had  not  the  least  idea  he  was  in  so 
critical  a  condition.  That  night  the  branches  were 
swaying  in  fierce  winds.  The  leaves  that  could  not 
rest  were  whirling  and  whirling  under  the  window. 
Afterward,  as  I  thought  back,  it  seemed  almost  as 
though  they  did  their  best  to  keep  me  awake  till  the 
message  came,  but  I  fell  asleep  thinking  the  day  had 
come  to  a  finish  and  all  was  well.  Just  before  mid- 
night I  learned  as  never  before  the  truth  there  is  in 
the  statement,  "  Thou  knowest  not  what  a  day  may 
bring  forth."  O,  those  midnight  hours,  a  thousand 
miles  from  his  bedside! 

The  next  morning  after  the  second  message 
came,  entering  upon  the  journey,  my  heart  kept 
saying,  "The  East  is  in  eclipse."  The  radiance  of 
his  face  had  meant  so  much  in  all  home-coming. 
Whether  cloud  or  sunshine  hung  over  the  speeding 
train  it  mattered  not,  he  was  at  the  journey's  end. 
This  time  it  was  cloud  all  the  way,  but  once  while 
the  train  was  winding  through  a  valley  in  the  gloom 
I  looked  up  and  saw  a  distant  hilltop  gleaming. 
Something  seemed  to  say,  "You  are  here  in  the 
shadow,  he  is  there  in  the  light." 

But  in  spite  of  telegrams,  as  I  approached  old 
scenes,  it  seemed  as  though  he  must  be  in  them. 
He  was  not  at  the  station  or  the  doorstep.  Instead, 
a  group  of  faces  inside  were  waiting  to  be  comforted. 
I  went  in  and  waited  with  them.  All  the  immediate 
family  were  there,  and  precious  ones  at  such  season 


FINAL    HOME-COMING  in 

had  begun  to  come.  It  was  indeed  a  house  of 
mourning,  but  also  of  precious  memories,  Christian 
hope,  and  bravery.  The  suddenness  of  the  issue, 
however,  gave  a  stunning  blow.  We  seemed  some- 
times to  be  in  a  daze.  We  could  not  help  feeling 
that  we  must  see  his  form  coming  down  the  stairway. 
But  there  on  the  piano,  just  as  he  left  it,  was  "Songs 
of  Praise"  open  at  the  I44th  page.  Our  attention 
was  called  to  it.  On  Tuesday  night,  the  second 
before  his  departure,  he  played  through  all  the 
stanzas  of  the  hymn,  "  O,  for  a  closer  walk  with 
God,"  humming  the  lines  in  low  voice.  Such  re- 
citals as  these  would  bring  us  to  ourselves  in  sad 
reality. 

Saturday,  November  9th,  was  the  day  of  burial. 
The  sky  was  leaden.  While  the  chimes  of  the 
church  filled  the  chill  air  with  the  melody  of  familiar 
sacred  strains,  between  1:30  and  2  o'clock,  a  large 
company  of  sorrowing  friends  were  gathering;  busi- 
ness men  from  all  parts  of  New  England,  from  the 
South  and  the  West;  educators  from  the  leading 

o 

Baptist  schools  of  New  England ;  officers  of  many 
corporations  of  which  he  was  director,  and  of  social 
organizations  to  which  he  belonged  ;  the  entire  Sun- 
day school  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  together 
with  all  the  officers  of  the  church,  and  many  mem- 
bers ;  friends  and  acquaintances  in  Newton  Centre 
and  vicinity. 

The  funeral  service  was  simple  and  impressive  ; 
not  a  word  of  eulogy,  but  the  Scripture  selections, 


in  STEPHEN   GREENE 

freshly  chosen  and  feelingly  read  by  the  pastor,  Rev. 
E.  D.  Burr,  kept  falling  into  silent,  sobbing  hearts 
with  marvelous  suggestiveness  and  comfort.  In  the 
reading  of  the  most  luminous  passages  there  was  no 
suggestion  of  jarring  contrast,  but  rather  of  beautiful 
fulfillment.  The  selections  sung  were  those  in  which 
his  soul  had  often  found  sweet  comfort,  "  Lead, 
Kindly  Light,"  "  One  Sweetly  Solemn  Thought," 
"  Abide  with  Me."  During  the  prayer  of  his 
classmate,  Rev.  E.  P.  Farnham,  we  all  felt  the 
mighty  load  under  which  he  staggered,  and  through 
the  victory  that  gave  him  calm,  we  found  our  souls 
quieted  in  eternal  hope. 

We  leave  the  church  and  the  larger  throng. 
Those  nearest  the  beloved  go  with  the  precious 
form  to  burial.  As  we  enter  Newton  Cemetery, 
just  as  the  clouds  begin  to  weep,  we  see  walking  by 
our  side  a  company  of  fifty  of  the  office  employees, 
and  as  we  recognize  among  them  faces  we  had  seen 
associated  with  him  in  his  strength,  another  deep 
wave  overwhelmed  us.  We  reach  our  journey's  end. 
The  fresh  turned  soil  is  covered  with  boughs.  Ex- 
quisite flowers  are  in  overflowing  abundance ;  but 
nothing  can  hide  the  one  great  fact  that  brought  us 
here.  We  bow  our  heads  and  hear  again  the  words 
of  Scripture  and  immortal  hope.  'Mid  falling  tears 
and  falling  rain  we  turn  our  faces  toward  homes  that 
will  forever  after  be  different  from  what  they  were 
when  his  living  face  brought  light. 


NOVEMBER  — WINTER  — JUNE 


"  /  sat  stone  still,  Itt  time  run  over  me." 

"  Let  us  leave  God  alone. 
Why  should  I  doubt  be  will  explain  in  time 
What  I  feel  now  but  fail  to  find  the  words. ' ' 

— BROWNING. 

"  Whatever  way  my  days  decline, 

I  felt  and  feel,  though  left  alone, 
His  being  working  in  mine  own, 
The  footsteps  of  bis  life  in  mine." 

— TENNYSON. 


XII 
NOVEMBER— WINTER— JUNE 

After  this  stretch  of  time  I  stand  again  on  sacred 
soil.  Then  it  was  near  the  edge  of  winter.  The 
clouds  dropped  tears  as  we  stood  that  afternoon 
massed  in  circle  round  the  open  grave.  It  was  cold 
and  drear.  Words  of  comfort  and  of  hope  were 
read,  and  we  did  mount  in  faith  with  that  spirit  in 
us  which  has  wings ;  but  our  human  hearts  which 
had  responded  so  many  years  to  this  form  and  face 
felt  the  suffocation  of  the  burial.  That  night  the 
cold,  which  chilled  the  tender  flowers,  the  large  floral 
guard  standing  sentinel,  we  could  not  help  but  feel, 
as  we  thought  of  him  out  there  under  the  roses. 

Now,  it  is  June  again.  Winter  has  passed  with 
its  frost,  and  storms  of  snow  and  wind,  and  its  long 
nights.  Through  all  those  days  and  nights  our  hearts 
have  lived,  recovering  equipoise,  gaining  for  our 
affection  something  of  the  serenity  our  judgment 
always  felt.  All  through  the  winter,  what  an  after- 
math of  testimonial,  the  country  over ! 

Here  I  stand,  in  June,  at  his  grave ;  it  is  the 
spot  of  his  own  selection  the  year  before,  side  by 
side  with  that  of  Vinal,  whom  he  loved ;  a  gentle 
slope  of  green,  looking  to  north  and  west,  and  catch- 
ing the  last  rays  of  the  setting  sun.  No  noise  of 
traffic  reaches  here.  There  is  the  quiet  rustle  of  elm 

"5 


n6  STEPHEN    GREENE 

and  maple,  now  and  then  the  musical  note  of  a  bird 
and  the  flash  of  a  wing.  In  front,  on  the  mirror 
surface  of  still  water,  spanned  by  a  rustic  bridge, 
insects  are  spinning  their  ephemeral  career,  minia- 
ture object  lesson  of  life's  swift  passage ;  back  a 
little,  up  the  slope,  is  a  circle  of  plants  resplendent 
in  bloom,  flowers  not  cut  when  tears  are  falling,  but 
still  alive,  growing  more  beautiful  out  of  the  peren- 
nial life  and  love  of  God ;  there  is  evergreen  to 
speak  of  immortality;  and  in  the  midst  of  all,  two 
beautiful,  white-robed  trees  of  stately  birch,  which 
seem  to  bring  the  angel  message :  "  He  is  not  buried 
here.  His  body  rests  from  labor,  it  is  true,  and  the 
place  is  dear;  but  he  lives,  he  lives  the  life  on  high." 
Standing  there  in  the  sunlight  and  quiet  by  the 
little  mound,  memory  doing  its  magic  work,  the 
heart  says,  "  Yes  ;  his  climax — wish  and  prayer  have 
found  fulfillment,  completest  answer."  This  was  his 
wish  and  prayer,  as  voiced  in  these  stanzas  quoted  at 
the  close  of  his  address  at  Detroit : 

THE   JOY    OF    LIVING 

"  O,  give  me  the  joy  of  living, 

And  some  glorious  work  to  do: 
A  spirit  of  thanksgiving, 

With  loyal  heart  and  true; 
Some  pathway  to  make  brighter, 

Where  tired  feet  now  stray; 
Some  burden  to  make  lighter 
While  *t  is  day. 


NOVEMBER  — WINTER  — JUNE      117 

"  O,  give  me  the  joy  of  living, 

In  the  world  where   God  lives,  too; 
And  the  blessed  power  of  giving, 

Where  men  have  so  much  to  do; 
Let  me  strive  where  men  are  striving, 

And  help  them  up  the  steep; 
May  the  trees  I  plant  be  thriving 
While  I  sleep. 

"  On  the  fields  of  the  Master  gleaning, 
May  my  heart  and  hands  be  strong; 
Let  me  know  life's  deepest  meaning, 

Let  me  sing  life's  sweetest  song; 
With  some  faithful  heart  to  love  me, 

Let  me  nobly  do  my  best; 
And  at  last,  with  heaven  above  me, 
Let  me  rest." 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES 


"All  is  over  and  done ; 
Render  thanks  to  the  Giver." 

—  TENNYSON. 

"He  bad  a  face  like  a  benediction" 

—  CERVANTES. 

"It  must  oft  fall  out 
That  one  whose  labor  perfects  any  tvort, 
Shall  rise  from  it  with  eyes  so  worn  that  be 
Of  all  men  least  can  measure  the  extent 
Of  what  he  has  accomplished. ' ' 

—  BROWNING. 


XIII 
MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES 

On  Tuesday  evening,  November  19,  1901,  a  me- 
morial service  was  held  in  the  First  Baptist  Church 
in  Newton  Centre.  It  was  largely  attended  by  repre- 
sentative people  from  near  and  far.  The  five  ad- 
dresses of  the  evening  are  here  given  very  nearly  in 
full,  together  with  a  communication  intended  for  the 
service;  also  an  address  given  at  the  Boston  Baptist 
Social  Union,  and  still  another  delivered  before  the 
alumni  of  the  Newton  Theological  Institution  : 

THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  NOBLEST 
MANHOOD 

ADDRESS  BY  REV.  EVERETT  D.  BURR 

Pastor  of  Newton  Centre  Baptist  Church 

We  do  honor  to-night  to  a  noble  life,  which  has  been 
spelling  out  the  mysteries  of  God  and  translating  the  love 
of  God.  His  beautiful  soul  suggested  God  as  the  shining 
in  the  still  waters  at  night  makes  us  instantly  aware  that  a 
star  is  above  us.  We  do  not  need  to  look  at  it,  we  know 
it  is  there.  So  good,  so  pure,  so  self-sacrificing,  his  aim 
and  spirit  were  so  in  harmony  with  eternal  life  he  seemed 
to  bring  eternity  with  him  and  make  time  seem  a  part  of  it. 

We  know  righteousness  to  be  immutable  and  sovereign, 
because  we  have  had  so  superb  an  illustration  of  righteous- 
ness. He  did  not  need  to  contend  for  his  faith,  his  life 

121 


122  STEPHEN   GREENE 

interpreted  and  unfolded  his  faith.  He  saw  God  in  the 
Scriptures  and  read  and  copied  his  law  into  that  stainless 
life  of  his  which  sunned  and  shamed  us  all.  He  saw  God 
in  suns  and  storms,  in  clouds  and  sunsets,  on  mountain  and 
sea,  in  woodland  and  meadow;  in  the  days  of  spring,  full  of 
bloom  and  beauty;  in  the  autumn,  rich  with  haze  and  mist; 
his  life  was  a  song;  he  gave  the  flower  and  fruit  of  his  life 
to  the  world.  In  the  words  of  Thoreau,  "His  goodness 
was  not  a  transitory  act,  but  a  constant  superfluity,  of  which 
he  was  unconscious."  He  imparted  his  courage,  and  not 
his  despair,  his  health  and  help,  not  his  pain.  His  help- 
fulness was  exhaled  like  a  fragrance.  Christ  was  to  him 
the  interpreter  of  nature  as  of  the  Scriptures  and  of  life. 

Stephen  Greene  lived  with  Christ.  He  journeyed  with 
Christ  in  ministering  to  the  poor  and  blessing  the  chil- 
dren; went  with  Christ  into  the  mountain  to  pray;  sat  with 
the  eager  multitudes  and  heard  Christ  preach;  marveled 
with  the  hushed  throng  at  his  miracles.  He  made  Christ's 
tireless  zeal  to  do  good  and  be  kind  his  great  ideal.  He 
marked  Christ's  unflagging  energy  to  relieve  the  widow's 
need  and  soothe  the  orphan's  grief.  He  saw  Christ's  in- 
finite majesty  under  pressure  of  undeserved  abuse;  he  saw 
in  turn  the  tender  compassion,  the  considerate  charity,  the 
undisturbed  meekness,  the  clear  devotion  to  truth,  the 
bending  obedience  of  his  powerful  will.  He  watched  the 
measureless  repose  of  power  and  the  grandeur  of  Christ's 
single-hearted  fidelity  to  purpose.  Each  grace  and  each 
beauty  of  that  faultless  presence  of  Christ  came  more  and 
more  frequently  into  view. 

The  beloved  well-known  form  of  his  Master  passed 
often  before  our  brother's  eyes.  He  grew  alert  to  catch 
signs  of  the  coming  of  Christ.  His  loving  heart  watched 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES  123 

for  that  coming  more  than  they  that  watch  for  the  morn- 
ing. With  the  maturing  years  he  saw  his  Master  ever 
clearer,  ever  nearer,  until  beholding  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
he  was  changed  into  the  same  image,  from  glory  to  glory. 
The  wish  and  the  yearning  became  a  prayer  "Oh,  that  I 
might  be  like  Thee!"  That  prayer  had  a  continuous 
answer.  We  saw  him  grow  in  grace  and  in  the  knowledge 
of  God.  We  noticed  his  increasing  Christliness.  He 
was  always  inspired  with  highest  hope,  fired  by  purest 
honor.  With  self  subdued,  he  grasped  with  swerveless 
poise  the  wave-beat  helm  of  will.  Our  beloved  was  a  son 
of  God.  It  had  not  yet  appeared  what  he  should  be,  but 
we  know  now  that  the  vision  is  complete,  he  is  like  Christ 
for  he  has  seen  him  as  he  is.  He  has  come  unto  the  per- 
fect man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ. 

Such  a  character  is  matured  in  the  Christian  faith  j  such 
a  life  is  lived  in  the  Christian  church.  The  proof  of  Chris- 
tianity is  a  Christian.  The  demonstration  of  the  power  of 
Christ's  church  as  a  birthplace  of  manhood  is  such  a  life, 
which  found  its  help  in  the  sanctuary  and  was  strength- 
ened out  of  Zion. 

Stephen  Greene's  life  reads  like  the  Eighty-seventh 
Psalm: 

"  His  foundation  is  in  the  holy  mountains.  The  Lord 
loveth  the  gates  of  Zion.  The  Lord  shall  count,  when  he 
writeth  up  the  people,  that  this  man  was  born  there.  All 
my  springs  are  in  thee," 

His  manhood  was  like  the  church  in  which  he  had  his 
birth,  to  which  he  gave  his  untiring  service.  It  is  a  cathe- 
dral of  character  into  which  we  have  come  to-night.  Here 
is  the  long  nave  of  holy  volition,  where  he  found  the  will 


124  STEPHEN    GREENE 

of  God.  Here  purposes  were  formed,  decisions  made, 
choices  determined,  aims  selected,  intentions  fixed.  He 
loved  the  will  of  God ;  it  was  the  strength  of  his  life. 
Yonder  the  transept  where  thought  matured,  where  ideals 
appeared,  and  aspirations  were  awakened,  where  mind  was 
broadened,  convictions  established,  hopes  aroused,  reason 
enthroned.  Again  and  counter  to  it  another  transept,  of 
the  heart,  where  sentiment  was  refined,  sympathies  were 
deepened,  charity  enlarged,  love  purified.  Above  all,beyond 
all,  illuminating  all,  the  chancel,  where  the  man  of  God  with 
uplifted  face  held  immediate  converse  with  the  Lord,  where 
law  was  revealed,  righteousness  expounded,  and  conscience 
found  her  throne  ;  the  inner  sanctuary  of  soul,  where  dwells 
the  high  altar,  the  Shekinah,  the  Cherubim,  and  the  Ark 
of  the  Covenant,  the  presence  chamber  of  the  King. 

Beside  the  greater  building,  yet  integral  parts  of  the 
larger  whole,  there  were  chapels  for  philanthropy,  for  educa- 
tion, for  missions,  for  civic  service ;  and  through  all  there 
glowed  the  light  of  the  divine  presence ;  in  all  was  heard 
the  rhythm  of  hopeful  song  and  the  hushed  murmur  of 
fervent  prayer. 

Stephen  Greene  was  himself  a  temple  of  God,  by  his 
manifold  ministries  giving  the  life  of  God  to  the  world. 
The  last  church  service  he  attended  was  the  communion 
of  the  Lord's  body.  That  service  was  a  fitting  consum- 
mation of  the  life  which  was  itself  one  sweet  communion, 
one  holy  sacrament. 

In  the  memories  of  that  last  hour,  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  will  have  a  new  meaning  to  us  all,  as  we 
say  with  him: 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES  125 

"  Thy  cup,  O  Christ,  I  take  with  trembling  hand, 
Remembering  Thee,  whose  blessed  life  it  gave 
In  self-abasing  love  a  world  to  save  : 
Save  me,  O  Christ,  though  meritless  I  stand. 

Thy  cup,  O  Christ,  I  take,  and  pledge  again 

My  life's  best  wine,  sun-mellowed  by  thy  grace, 

And  trodden  in  the  purple  press  of  pain, 
Too  poor  a  vintage  on  thy  board  to  place. 

"Thy  cup,  O  Christ,  I  take,  and  humbly  pour 

My  mingled  love  and  thine  the  world  to  bless ; 
O  miracle  that  my  unworthiness 
Thy  worth  transmutes  into  a  priceless  store  ! 

Thy  cup,  O  Christ,  I  take  for  that  great  feast 
Of  lite,  thy  deathless  love  shall  one  day  spread ; 

And  drink  the  Eucharist  of  pain  surceased, 

And  see  Thee,  King,  with  victory  garlanded." 


THE    CHRISTIAN    BUSINESS    MAN 
MR.  J.  W.  DANIELSON 

Of  Providence,  Rhode  Island 

Stephen  Greene  has  been  my  intimate  friend  for  nearly 
twenty  years.  We  have  been  together  often;  have  traveled 
many  thousand  miles  together.  He  was  a  dear  friend  and 
a  true  man.  There  are  many  mourners  throughout  this 
land  to-day.  Many  business  men  knew  Mr.  Greene  as 
an  upright  business  man,  and  had  great  affection  for  him 
because  of  his  noble  qualities  and  his  sincere  life.  On 
that  sad  Saturday  afternoon  in  this  room  were  many  busi- 
ness men.  I  saw  quite  a  number  of  them  afterwards,  and 
they  gave  evidence  that  they  were  sincere  mourners  on 
account  of  the  death  of  this  noble  man.  One  man  who 


126  STEPHEN    GREENE 

was  in  sorrow  and  could  hardly  express  himself,  said,  "  It  is 
a  great  loss  to  the  business  community.  It  is  a  great 
loss  to  me,  for  whenever  he  visited  me  I  felt  that  I  was 
a  better  man.  His  influence  was  something  wonderful." 

Mr.  Greene,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Lockwood,  my 
father-in-law,  desired  that  the  name  of  the  latter  might 
be  continued  in  the  firm.  Mr.  Lockwood's  family  gladly 
consented  that  there  should  be  no  change,  showing  their 
respect  for  Mr.  Greene  in  their  willingness  that  Mr.  Lock- 
wood's  name  should  be  used  after  his  death  as  it  was 
before. 

The  more  one  thinks  of  the  success  of  Mr.  Greene 
as  a  mill  architect  and  engineer  since  the  death  of  his 
partner,  Mr.  Lockwood,  in  1884,  the  more  remarkable  it 
seems.  Small  at  first,  the  business  steadily  increased  until 
it  reached  such  large  proportions  that  it  was  of  itself  a  suffi- 
cient tax  upon  his  strength  without  the  burdens  which  he 
so  willingly  accepted  in  other  directions.  The  field  of  his 
labors  reached  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
the  work  done  by  him  was  enormous.  This  he  under- 
took not  entirely  for  his  own  personal  gain,  but  because 
he  was  especially  interested  in  improving  the  condition 
of  the  poorer  people  of  the  Southern  States,  where  so  large 
a  part  of  the  results  of  his  labors  are  to  be  found  in  scat- 
tered manufacturing  villages.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the 
number  of  persons  in  the  South  alone  directly  benefited 
through  these  efforts  would,  if  gathered  together,  make 
a  city  larger  than  the  present  city  of  Providence,  with 
its  175,000  inhabitants.  Many  of  these  industrial  enter- 
prises will  long  remain  as  monuments  to  Mr.  Greene's 
wisdom  as  a  philanthropist,  as  well  as  to  his  sagacity  as 
a  business  man,  and  he  was  able  to  accomplish  so  much 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES  127 

because  of  his  great  business  capacity,  culture,  and  ability 
to  deal  with  men. 

Mr.  Greene's  personality  was  remarkably  strong  and 
effective.  He  drew  men  to  himself  by  his  cordial  and 
courteous  manner,  and  he  retained  the  confidence  of  his 
clients  and  business  friends  by  his  unquestioned  honesty 
and  faithfulness.  He  was  often  called  upon  to  arbitrate 
in  the  settlement  of  differences  between  contracting  parties, 
and  his  decisions  were  uniformly  just. 

During  the  last  few  years  great  changes  have  taken 
place  in  textile  machinery  and  the  development  of  power. 
Mr.  Greene  was  a  progressive  man,  and  readily  accepted 
what  seemed  to  him  to  have  merit,  not  rejecting  any- 
thing because  it  was  new,  nor  accepting  it  because  it  was 
new,  but  carefully  investigated  and  proved  its  worth.  In 
Mr.  Greene's  death,  the  business  community  has  lost  a  man 
of  proved  ability  in  his  profession,  a  man  of  strictest  integ- 
rity, and  above  all,  a  Christian  gentleman. 


THE  FRIEND  OF  EDUCATION 
PRESIDENT  NATHAN  E.  WOOD,  D.D., 

President  of  Newton  Theological  Institution 

I  think  if  Stephen  Greene  could  speak  to  us  to-night  he 
would  silence  all  of  us  and  bid  us  not  to  exhibit  those  deeds 
of  his  and  those  influences  of  his  which  he  thought  only 
God  and  himself  knew.  And  yet  it  is  not  possible  to  re- 
strain us,  for  his  death  is  a  personal  loss  to  everyone  of  us. 
A  gentleman  on  the  street  here  yesterday,  with  whom  he 
had  only  a  slight  business  relation,  said,  "I  have  lost  the 
best  friend  I  had."  I  think  there  are  multitudes  of  men 
who  would  say  the  same  thing,  not  that  they  were  neces- 


128  STEPHEN   GREENE 

sarily  intimately  related  to  him  in  business  or  in  social 
ways,  but  because  they  felt  that  somehow  they  knew  a 
man  who  was  a  genuine  man  and  who  could  be  counted 
on  in  time  of  need. 

There  is  a  notion  that  a  man's  success  depends  upon 
the  singleness  of  his  aim,  and  that  in  order  to  have  intensity 
of  life  and  to  have  success  in  life  one  must  go  along  very 
narrow  lines.  Surely  Mr.  Greene  was  an  illustration  of 
the  falsity  of  that  idea.  I  never  thought  of  him  as  a  pro- 
jectile although  he  went  straight  as  an  arrow  to  the  mark. 
I  thought  of  him  rather  as  a  sun  giving  out  light  and  heat 
and  drawing  men  to  himself  and  giving  a  sense  of  geniality 
and  strength  and  courage  and  help  to  all  about  him. 

He  had  a  multitude  of  interests;  possibly  no  one  of  us 
could  speak  from  experience  with  him  of  all  his  varied  in- 
terests. I  have  been  associated  with  him  in  the  work  in 
city  missions.  I  have  been  associated  with  him  officially 
in  the  work  connected  with  state  missions,  with  the 
work  of  home  missions,  and  I  have  often  had  consultations 
with  him  in  regard  to  the  work  of  foreign  missions.  You 
know  his  deep  interest  in  Sunday  schools.  I  know  his 
deep  interest  in  education.  Indeed,  I  do  not  know  of 
any  good  work  in  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ  for  the 
helping  of  men  that  did  not  appeal  intensely  to  Stephen 
Greene.  His  heart  went  out  to  every  good  work,  and  not 
only  did  his  heart  go  out,  but  he  put  himself  into  it.  I  am 
not  to  speak  of  those  other  spheres  of  his  activity,  but  sim- 
ply of  him  as  a  friend  of  education. 

There  are  four  sorts  of  men  interested  in  education, 
possibly  more,  but  surely  four.  There  are  the  men  who 
are  critical.  They  are  interested  in  education  theoretically. 
They  feel  a  deep  concern  in  the  schools  of  the  town,  in 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  129 

the  academy,  the  college,  and  the  seminary,  but  all  the  while 
their  interest  stops  with  criticism,  suggesting  how  this 
might  be  different,  or  how  men  who  are  concerned  in 
management  might  do  differently,  and  feel  that  their  work 
in  life  is  done  as  a  friend  of  education  in  the  critical  aspects 
of  their  duty  toward  education. 

There  are  also  men  who  are  theoretically  interested  in 
education.  They  believe  in  it,  they  believe  in  the  culture 
which  it  brings  into  the  community  and  into  the  individual 
life,  but  they  do  not  bring  any  of  their  time  or  their  business 
sagacity  or  their  money  or  influence  to  the  positive  and 
direct  upbuilding  of  the  schools  of  learning. 

Then  there  are  the  conservative  friends  of  education. 
I  have  often  thought  that  many  trustees  of  schools — I  have 
known  many  first  and  last — felt  that  their  whole  duty  was 
done  when  they  put  brakes  on  educational  enterprises. 
Stephen  Greene  always  wanted  to  put  on  steam.  He  was 
saying  always,  "Let  us  do  something.  Let  us  bring  some- 
thing to  pass,  not  merely  conserve  and  nurture  and  hold 
the  little  we  have,  but  let  us  do  something."  How 
many  times  I  have  heard  him  say  that.  I  can  hear  his 
voice  now  as  I  speak,  saying  in  boards  of  trustees,  "Let  us 
bring  something  to  pass.  Are  we  going  to  do  something? 
Do  something."  I  think  that  was  a  favorite  expression 
of  his,  and  it  was  eminently  characteristic  of  his  life. 

Then  there  is  a  fourth  class  of  friends  of  education — 
the  intelligent  class.  I  think  he  belonged  to  that,  and  by 
intelligence  I  mean  a  man  who  looks  broadly,  sees  the 
faults,  sees  the  excellence,  sees  the  value,  sees  the  power, 
and  puts  himself  as  Christ's  friend  and  as  the  friend  of 
education  into  the  pushing  forward  of  educational  enter- 
prises and  the  establishing  of  them  on  firm  basis. 


i3o  STEPHEN    GREENE 

It  was  in  the  year  1893,  ^  think,  at  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  trustees  in  June  of  that  year  that  Mr.  Greene  be- 
came a  trustee  of  the  Newton  Theological  Institution. 
There  is  a  history  connected  with  it.  I  do  not  know  all 
the  details  of  it,  but  I  know  some  of  it.  It  so  chanced 
that  both  he  and  I  came  into  this  region  about  the  same 
time,  and  the  instant  I  saw  him  I  felt  that  I  had  met 
a  man,  and  I  said  to  him,  "You  ought  to  settle  with  me. 
You  ought  to  come  where  you  can  be  my  helper." 
Laughingly  I  said  it.  He  said,  "No,  I  have  a  work  to  do. 
I  am  going  to  Newton  Centre."  I  did  not  know  clearly 
what  that  work  was  when  he  said  it,  but  I  now  think,  and 
I  have  reason  to  think,  that  he  had  fixed  his  eye  upon  this 
institution  of  learning  on  the  hill,  that  he  had  become  in- 
terested in  it  in  various  ways,  possibly  through  his  brother, 
who  was  an  alumnus,  or  through  his  own  broad,  Christian 
intelligence,  of  the  value  of  this  sort  of  a  school,  but  at 
any  rate  I  think  he  had  fixed  his  mind  upon  it.  So,  in 
June,  1893,  ne  became  a  trustee,  and  it  was  in  the  fol- 
lowing December  you  find  him  appointed  on  a  building 
committee.  That  was  characteristic  of  Stephen  Greene. 
Only  a  few  months.  He  soon  became  the  chairman  of  it, 
because  it  was  his  right  to  be  the  chairman.  It  was  in  the 
following  spring,  in  March,  I  think,  that  he  became  the 
chairman  of  it,  and  it  was  in  August  of  the  year  1894  that 
the  contract  for  the  Hills  Library  was  let,  and  more  due  to 
Stephen  Greene  perhaps  than  to  any  other  man  is  it  that 
we  have  that  beautiful  library  building  on  the  hill. 

But  another  characteristic  came  out  in  that  enterprise. 
When  he  began  to  study  the  situation  for  a  library  he  be- 
gan to  see  other  necessities,  and  he  said,  "Let  us  do  a  large 
thing.  Why  should  we  do  a  small  thing?"  and  so  straight- 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES  131 

way  he  began  to  study  the  heating  apparatus  on  the  hill, 
and  he  said,  "Let  us  have  a  power  plant,"  and  it  was  only 
from  August  to  October  until  that  matter  took  form  and 
shape  in  his  heart  and  mind  and  he  persuaded  the  trustees 
to  let  him  contract  for  a  heating  plant. 

But  he  was  not  content.  It  was  only  a  little  later  that 
he  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  for  the  rebuilding 
of  Farwell  Hall,  and  he  pushed  that  through  in  1898,  and 
he  said,  "Not  only  must  we  have  this,  but  we  must  have  a 
new  chapel,"  and  he  became  chairman  of  the  building 
committee  to  push  that  through,  and  the  new  chapel  is  a 
monument  of  his  patient  industry  and  skill. 

And  in  the  year  1900,  just  passed,  he  was  the  chairman 
of  the  building  committee  for  the  president's  house,  and  for 
that  beautiful  little  well-house  we  have  on  the  hill,  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  buildings  and  grounds,  and 
took  the  lead  in  plans  and  arrangements  for  renovating  and 
beautifying  the  hill.  Indeed,  I  used  to  think  sometimes, 
especially  as  I  came  to  know  in  these  last  years  of  his  life, 
that  he  ate  and  drank  and  lived  and  slept  with  the  Newton 
Theological  Institution,  he  carried  it  so  upon  his  heart, 
and  I  cannot  yet  think  but  he  will  come  up  on  the  hill  as 
I  have  seen  him  so  many  times  to  look  over  the  improve- 
ments and  see  how  we  are  getting  on  up  there.  There 
are  trustees  and  trustees,  but  this  was  a  trustee  who  be- 
lieved in  education  to  the  extent  of  putting  his  heart  and 
his  brain  and  his  consecrated  life  and  his  energy  and  his 
money  into  it.  How  many  times  I  have  seen  him  in  our 
boards  of  conference  when  the  way  seemed  hedged  and 
there  were  difficulties,  and  always  men  to  put  on  brakes 
and  to  speak  discouragingly,  and  say,  "We  can't  do  this," 
how  many  times  I  have  seen  him  rise  with  that  magnificent 


132  STEPHEN    GREENE 

Christian  optimism  of  his  and  say,  "Brethren,  we  can  do 
it.  We  will  do  it."  1  hardly  know  who  is  to  take  his 
place.  His  optimism  was  not  all  of  nature.  It  was  largely 
because  he  believed  in  God,  and  that  these  enterprises  were 
the  enterprises  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  be- 
lieving that,  he  believed  that  they  could  not  fail  and  that 
the  man  who  was  linked  with  them  in  Christ's  name  should 
carry  them  through  to  success. 

His  interest  in  these  later  years  widened,  as  you  might 
guess  it  would,  and  he  became  profoundly  interested  in 
Brown  University  and  was  a  trustee.  He  became  in- 
terested in  the  Worcester  Academy  and  was  an  official 
member  of  that  institution,  and  to  be  an  official  member  or 
an  institution  of  learning  was  something  more  than  official- 
ness  with  Stephen  Greene.  It  meant  that  he  gave  it  his 
thought  and  his  time  and  his  money.  Whatever  he  under- 
took to  do  he  did  with  his  might. 

There  are  certain  names  that  we  speak  very  familiarly 
on  the  hill.  There  is  not  any  day  from  the  time  the  term 
opens  in  September  until  it  closes  in  June  when  certain 
names  are  not  spoken  over  and  over  again.  Colby  Hall, 
in  honor  of  a  noble  man,  a  member  of  this  church;  Farwell, 
Farwell  Hall,  spoken  so  many  times  in  honor  of  that  man 
so  long  ago,  who,  much  like  Stephen  Greene,  gave  his  love 
and  his  time  and  his  money  for  the  institution  on  the  hill; 
the  Hills  Library,  Sturtevant  Hall;  those  names  are  spoken 
by  professors  and  students  constantly  in  our  daily  inter- 
course. I  wish  some  friend  of  Stephen  Greene  would  put 
upon  that  hill  a  building  that  in  all  the  years  to  come 
should  be  known  as  Greene  Hall,  that  we  might  speak  his 
name  as  we  speak  these  other  names. 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  133 

THE    MISSIONARY    IDEAL 
REV.  E.  P.  FARNHAM, 

Pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,   Salem,   Massachusetts 

I  have  been  asked  to  speak  of  Stephen  Greene  as  a  fellow- 
helper  of  the  truth  in  Christian  missions. 

First  of  all,  we  must  be  sure  that  we  know  the  spirit 
of  the  man,  else  we  shall  do  him  or  his  associates,  or  some 
special  phase  of  the  great  cause  of  missions,  serious  injustice. 
Beyond  a  doubt,  Stephen  Greene  was  cast  in  a  large  mold. 
His  was  a  broad,  generous  nature,  a  great,  sympathetic  heart, 
a  wide  vision,  judicial  mind. 

One  of  the  leading  cotton-mill  manufacturers  of  New  Eng- 
land said  to  me,  with  moist  eyes,  on  the  day  of  Mr.  Greene's 
departure  from  us,  "  You  will  understand  me,  Mr.  Farnham, 
there  are  many  good  men.  Mr.  Greene  was  a  good  man, 
but  he  was  more  than  that ;  he  was  a  big  man.  He  had 
such  a  broad,  tolerant  mind.  There  were  few  like  him. 
We  trusted  him  absolutely  in  everything." 

One  of  the  most  extensive  contractors  and  builders  in 
this  vicinity,  one  who  has  had  close  business  relations  with 
Mr.  Greene  for  years,  said  to  me  the  other  day,  "  In  the 
different  relationships  of  mill  architect  and  mill  contractor 
there  has  never  been  any  controversy  between  us.  It  was 
understood  that  in  carrying  out  the  designs  of  his  office 
in  mill  construction  Mr.  Greene  would  never  be  satisfied 
with  anything  less  than  what  was  right,  and  that  he  would 
never  take  advantage." 

In  seeking  to  furnish  accurate  estimate  of  the  character 
of  the  man,  of  the  spirit  that  ruled  him,  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  give  my  personal  tribute.  I  have  known  Stephen 
Greene  as  intimately  and  confidingly  as  an  own  brother 


I34  STEPHEN    GREENE 

for  thirty-one  years.  In  the  college  class-room,  in  the 
quest  for  a  true  woman's  heart,  in  the  reciprocal  minis- 
tries of  true  love,  in  a  beautiful  home  life  for  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  in  the  long  years  of  industrious 
and  patient  plodding  with  the  goal  of  life  far  beyond  his 
reach,  but  evermore  in  clear  perspective,  in  heroic  self- 
denial,  and  under  limitations  that  chafed  but  never  embit- 
tered him,  in  the  widening  spheres  of  opportunity  and 
increasing  power  and  acknowledged  triumph,  when  rich 
harvests  from  previous  toil  were  garnered,  and  honors  were 
cast  thick  upon  him,  I  have  seen  him  endure  with  an  almost 
supernatural  patience  and  poise  blows  and  burdens  that 
would  have  crushed  a  less  manly  soul.  But  through  the 
years  I  have  never  known  him  to  indulge  in  narrow  views 
of  men  or  things,  whether  the  problem  submitted  to  him 
pertained  to  the  kingdoms  of  earth  or  heaven. 

Stephen  Greene  was  not  built  in  sections  with  fire- 
proof partitions  shutting  in  or  shutting  out  any  function 
of  his  great  soul.  His  whole  being  seemed  to  be  illumined 
with  clear  light  and  to  be  permeated  with  genial  warmth. 
He  was  delighted  with  a  certain  characterization  found  in 
Virgil,  and  if  I  mistake  not,  sent  it  as  a  daily  reminder 
to  two  boys  in  whom  he  was  greatly  interested,  who  were 
at  the  time  his  attention  was  called  to  it  pursuing  courses 
of  study  at  Worcester  Academy.  This  was  it,  "  Totus  in  illis "; 
the  whole  man  in  these  things.  That  was  Stephen  Greene. 
The  whole  man  in  whatever  claimed  his  attention,  whether 
it  was  a  white  head  of  celery  in  his  garden  or  a  cotton-mill 
in  Maine  or  in  South  Carolina,  a  class  of  boys  in  the 
Sunday  school  or  a  theological  seminary  on  Newton  Hill, 
looking  out  on  the  needs  of  a  whole  world,  a  mission  station 
to  be  manned  and  supported  in  the  North  End  of  Boston  or  in 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  135 

North  Dakota  or  western  China,  or  may  be  an  important 
annual  meeting  to  be  attended  and  presided  over  at  Rochester 
or  Detroit  or  San  Francisco,  you  had  your  whole  man  for 
service  in  whatever  service  summoned  Stephen  Greene. 
That  was  his  relationship  to  world-wide  missions.  Whatever 
there  was  in  him  was  yours.  He  took  his  whole  mind  and 
heart  with  him  to  his  tasks. 

I  shall  never  forget  a  conversation  at  his  office  a  few  days 
before  the  annual  meetings  were  to  be  held  at  San  Francisco, 
where  he  was  expected  to  preside ;  it  was  positively  the  most 
trying  season  of  the  year  for  him  to  leave  his  business  engage- 
ments; new  work  was  pressing  upon  him,  demands  were 
arising  for  his  presence  in  different  parts  of  the  country; 
I  said  to  him,  "You  ought  not  to  bear  this  strain.  You 
must  not  think  of  going  to  San  Francisco  to  be  absent 
ten  or  twelve  days."  His  response  was,  "  I  shall  go.  I  am 
not  the  man  to  accept  the  honor  of  such  an  appointment 
as  this  and  then  shirk  its  chief  duty."  At  the  last  hour 
it  was  impossible  for  him,  I  think,  to  break  away  from 
his  engagements,  but  he  fully  intended  and  planned  to  make 
the  sacrifice. 

It  is  true  he  was  president  for  three  years  of  our  Ameri- 
can Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  but  he  was  never  known 
as  a  home  mission  or  a  foreign  mission  society  man.  He 
was  larger  than  both  these  designations.  He  protested 
against  the  use  of  them.  Missions  at  home  and  in  foreign 
parts  expressed  to  his  mind  a  more  just  and  desired  mean- 
ing. He  could  have  presided  with  equal  grace  and  with 
equal  heartiness  at  a  home  mission  meeting  in  the  morn- 
ing, at  a  foreign  mission  in  the  afternoon,  and  have  made 
addresses  on  state  missions  and  city  missions  in  the  even- 
ing of  the  same  day,  and  then  have  attended  an  after- 


136  STEPHEN    GREENE 

meeting  that  he  might  come  in  personal  touch  with  some 
soul  who  was  honestly  seeking  to  know  Jesus  Christ. 
If  I  mistake  not,  this  was  the  spirit  of  the  man;  this  was 
the  measure  of  our  brother's  relationship  to  all  missionary 
and  to  all  Christian  enterprises.  He  was  a  devout  and 
loyal  steward  of  Almighty  God,  seeking  faithfully  to  give 
the  net  profit  of  his  life  to  the  ushering  in  of  the  divine 
kingdom  on  the  round  globe.  In  all  truly  Christian  instru- 
mentalities he  discovered  intelligent  and  co-operative  means 
to  a  common  end.  He  did  not  need  to  be  aroused  by  his 
pastor  every  Sunday  morning  to  these  potent  facts.  Stephen 
Greene  was  as  great  an  inspiration  to  his  pastor  as  any  pastor 
could  be  to  Stephen  Greene.  What  an  alert  mind,  and 
what  a  great,  sympathetic  heart. 

"High  nature,  amorous  of  the  good, 
But  touched  with  no  ascetic  gloom, 
And  passion  pure  in   snowy  bloom 
Through  all  the  years  of  April  blood, 
And  manhood  fused  with  female  grace. 
In   such  a  sort  the  child  would  twine 
A  trustful  hand  unasked  in  thine, 
And  find   his  comfort  in  thy  face." 

He  had  a  perfect  vision  to  see  that  the  boy  who  was 
converted  in  his  Sunday  school  to-day,  in  swiftly  succeed- 
ing weeks  and  years  might  be  pursuing  courses  of  study 
at  Worcester  Academy  and  Brown  University  and  Newton 
Theological  Institution,  that  he  might  be  ordained  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  preach  the  gospel,  and  in  a  few  months  receive 
an  appointment  as  a  colporteur  or  home  missionary  in 
Mexico  or  Oklahoma,  and  the  following  year  be  sent  out 
by  our  Missionary  Union  to  reveal  Jesus  Christ  to  men 
in  western  China;  and  I  verily  believe  that  if  that  same 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  137 

young  man  had  foolishly  decided  to  study  theology  in  the 
remote  districts  of  Pennsylvania  or  New  York,  Mr.  Greene 
would  have  maintained  his  Christian  equilibrium  without 
a  struggle. 

These  complications  did  not  trouble  him.  He  looked 
down  upon  them  from  a  serene  height,  and  he  saw  through 
them.  He  knew  from  divine  inspiration  that  the  field  is  the 
world,  and  that  all  human  forces  properly  allied  with  each 
other  are  allied  also  in  a  divine  co-partnership. 

In  his  early  Christian  life  he  had  appropriated  the  great 
Apostle's  definition  of  the  true  missionary  spirit.  I  would 
not  wonder  at  all  if  Deacon  Alvin  Greene  and  that  true 
Christian  mother,  Maria  Greene,  who  have  welcomed  him 
now  to  the  heavenly  home,  godly  parents  of  five  noble 
boys  who  have  grown  to  manhood,  I  would  not  wonder 
at  all  if  these  parents  were  responsible  for  the  interpretation 
to  all  these  boys  of  the  New  Testament  doctrine  of  world- 
wide missions.  As  we  have  been  put  in  trust  with  the 
gospel,  so  we  speak;  as  we  have  been  ministered  unto, 
so  will  we  minister;  as  we  have  received  the  gospel,  so  will 
we  give  the  gospel  to  earth's  remotest  bounds. 

He  could  not  be  persuaded  to  attach  unequal  and  partial 
values  to  divinely  appointed  and  accredited  methods  of 
leading  men  into  the  knowledge  and  service  of  the  Son  of 
God.  It  was  his  nature  to  yield  generous  appreciation  to 
whatever  agency  God  had  appointed  for  the  promotion  of 
his  cause.  With  an  alert  mind,  with  keen  business  apti- 
tude, developed  by  years  of  patient  business  training  and 
achievement  as  he  came  into  a  fuller  knowledge  of  church 
and  mission  work,  it  was  inevitable  that  he  should  deplore 
needless  waste  of  efficiency  and  power  in  the  complication 
of  agencies  and  the  overlapping  offerees  employed.  Hence 


138  STEPHEN   GREENE 

his  eager  service  in  attempting  to  simplify  methods  and 
agencies. 

It  is  needful  at  this  point  to  utter  but  the  briefest  word, 
and  yet  I  am  sure  that  word  will  be  welcomed.  His  labor 
in  these  matters — and  only  those  who  stood  nearest  to  him 
can  know  what  a  draft  it  made  upon  his  overtaxed  vitality — 
his  labor  was  simply  the  expression  of  his  unselfish  and 
ingenuous  nature  applying  well-attested  business  principles 
to  great  spiritual  problems. 

It  need  not  have  been  a  surprise  to  any  one  that  he 
refused  utterly  to  employ  diplomacy  and  artfulness  in  engi- 
neering through  any  favorite  scheme  to  a  triumphant  issue. 
There  were  at  least  three  reasons  why  he  did  not  and 
could  not.  He  had  no  favorite  scheme  to  engineer  through. 
He  had  no  personal  ambitions  or  ends  to  gain.  He  felt 
not  the  slightest  demand  upon  him  for  the  use  of  diplomacy 
in  these  matters.  If  measures  that  commended  themselves 
to  his  business  judgment  and  to  his  world-wide  interest  in 
the  conquest  of  this  world  for  Jesus  Christ  could  not  be 
accepted  on  their  face  value  Stephen  Greene  was  done. 
He  was  simple  and  great-minded  enough  to  desire  the 
practical  unification  of  all  Christian  forces  among  us  for 
the  redemption  of  this  world  unto  God.  In  all  this  he 
desired  not  one  thing  for  himself.  His  only  wish  was  to 
see  the  best  methods  inaugurated  to  secure  the  best  ends. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  Mr.  Greene  as  a  generous  giver 
to  the  cause  of  missions  or  to  Christian  causes;  it  has  been 
implied.  I  am  sure  his  ideals  of  Christian  stewardship 
were  applied  to  all  his  resources,  material  and  spiritual. 
He  gave  as  he  loved,  gladly  and  freely  and  increasingly, 
with  increasing  ability. 

We  are  tempted  to  say  that  he  made  one  serious  mis- 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  139 

take,  that  he  burned  out  his  life  all  too  swiftly,  and  that  he 
ought  not  to  have  assumed  so  many  burdens.  If  this  be 
true  then  his  brethren  ought  to  have  shared  more  manfully 
his  burdens  with  him.  We  ought  not  to  have  permitted 
such  a  heavy  load  to  be  put  upon  one  pair  of  shoulders  and 
upon  one  brave  heart. 

Are  we  really  wishing  now  to  build  a  worthy  memorial 
to  the  character  and  influence  of  this  man  of  God?  May 
I  tell  you  what  I  think  it  ought  to  be  ?  and  the  carrying  out 
of  the  suggestion  of  President  Wood  will  only  be  one 
expression  of  it;  not  a  shaft  of  marble  certainly,  nor  even 
of  enduring  granite  from  his  early  Rhode  Island  home,  not 
a  series  of  resolutions  though  framed  in  choicest  language 
and  engrossed  in  gold,  but  this  rather,  and  the  pastors  who 
loved  him  and  the  laymen  who  loved  him  can  help  build  it 
together,  the  memorial  in  our  individual  lives  and  in  the 
lives  of  our  children  of  such  ideals  as  he  cherished,  to  be 
more  intimately  and  faithfully  cherished  by  us. 

If  we  would  honor  him  truly,  let  us  vie  together  to 
advance  the  manifold  interests  he  so  dearly  loved.  Let  us 
carry  on  to  completion  the  equipment  and  endowment  of 
these  truly  beneficent  institutions  of  learning.  Let  us  seek 
to  make  every  one  of  our  churches  and  Sunday  schools 
broadly  and  enthusiastically  missionary  in  the  deepest  sense. 
Let  us  each  seek  to  be  more  ideal  stewards  of  Jesus  Christ, 
thus  perpetuating  in  the  earth  the  personal  power  and  effi- 
ciency of  one  whom  so  many  of  us  love  to  call  our  ideal 
layman. 

His  stay  with  us  and  his  going  from  us  will  be  truly 
memorialized,  if  as  brethren,  as  sons  of  God,  and  joint 
heirs  with  Jesus  Christ,  we  come  into  closer  touch  with 
each  other,  and  let  this  old  world  know  that  henceforth  it 


i4o  STEPHEN   GREENE 

is  our  chief  concern,  as  it  was  his,  to  reveal  the  Son  of 
God  to  the  sons  of  men,  and  to  establish  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness  and  peace  in  the  earth. 
Such  a  man  was  Stephen  Greene. 

REV.  EVERETT  D.  BURR 

A  telegram  received  to-day  from  one  whose  voice  should 
be  heard,  reads  after  this  wise:  "  The  soul  of  Jonathan  was 
knit  with  the  soul  of  David,  and  Jonathan  loved  him  as 
his  own  soul.  How  are  the  mighty  fallen  in  the  midst  of  the 
battle!  Oh,  Jonathan,  thou  wast  slain  in  thine  high  places. 
I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother  Jonathan."  Signed 
by  Dr.  Benjamin  A.  Greene,  of  Evanston,  Illinois. 


A  BAPTIST  OF  THE   NEW  ERA 
W.  H.  P.  FAUNCE,  D.  D., 

President  of  Brown  University 

Twenty-five  years  ago  this  month  I  stumbled  as  a  college 
freshman  into  the  Bible  class  of  Stephen  Greene  in  the  Cen- 
tral Baptist  Church  in  Providence.  That  bright  blue  eye, 
that  mellow  voice,  that  winning  smile,  that  strong  hand- 
grasp,  drew  me  then,  and  in  all  the  years  since,  we  have 
walked  together. 

What  sort  of  period  have  these  twenty-five  years  been, 
and  what  has  been  his  contribution  to  them  ?  Have  they 
been  like  all  the  other  quarter-centuries  of  the  world's 
history,  or  are  we  right  when  we  say  that  in  these  years 
the  world  has  been  transfigured  industrially,  socially,  educa- 
tionally, religiously  ? 

The  difference  between  David's  harp  of  solemn  sound 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  141 

and  Beethoven's  spinet  is  not  so  great  as  the  difference 
between  the  spinet  and  the  modern  organ.  A  metropolitan 
journal  of  highest  character  has  recently  celebrated  its  one 
hundredth  anniversary,  and  the  editor  quietly  states  that 
the  difference  between  the  first  issue  and  the  last  is  hardly 
greater  than  the  difference  between  the  issue  of  twenty 
years  ago  and  that  of  to-day. 

The  human  advance  from  the  ships  of  the  Phoenicians 
to  the  "  Great  Eastern"  is  not  so  great  as  the  advance  from 
the  "Great  Eastern"  to  the  "  Kaiser  Wilhelm  der  Grosse." 
The  progress  from  the  chariot  of  Nero  to  the  English  stage- 
coach is  not  so  great  as  the  progress  from  the  stage-coach 
to  the  Empire  State  Express.  The  college  of  two  hundred 
years  ago  was  essentially  the  same  thing  as  the  college  of 
twenty  years  ago.  The  college  of  twenty  years  ago  has 
small  resemblance  to  the  college  of  to-day. 

The  views  of  life  and  death  and  eternity  and  human 
duty  shared  by  John  Milton  are  the  same  as  those  of  Presi- 
dent Finney.  The  distance  from  Milton,  or  even  from 
Dante  to  Finney,  is  less  than  the  distance  from  Finney  to 
Henry  Drummond.  This  is  the  period  in  which  Stephen 
Greene  has  lived. 

Now,  the  question  that  is  asked  concerning  every  man 
in  our  generation  who  has  passed  into  the  unseen — the 
question  which  will  be  asked  a  few  years  from  now — it 
may  be  a  few  days  from  now — of  each  one  of  us,  will 
be,  What  was  his  attitude  toward  the  sweep  and  tendency 
of  his  time  ?  As  he  saw  these  swift  changes  coming  like 
waves  of  the  sea,  following  one  another  when  the  tide 
sweeps  up  the  coast,  did  he  shrink  and  cower  before  them, 
as  if  every  wave  was  a  foe  let  loose  by  the  arch  fiend,  or 
did  he  see  Him  who  sitteth  on  the  flood  as  king  forever? 


i42  STEPHEN    GREENE 

You  all  know  the  answer  if  we  ask  that  question  of 
Stephen  Greene.  He  possessed  the  perfect  love  that 
casteth  out  fear.  He  never  dreaded  the  age  in  which  he 
lived;  he  loved  it;  he  shared  it;  he  interpreted  and  guided 
it.  Whoever  talked  with  him  for  half  an  hour,  for  five 
minutes,  knew  that  he  had  found  the  central  peace,  that 
that  life  so  full  of  perplexities  and  complexities  and  enter- 
prises and  interests  and  problems  was  a  life  whose  center 
was  at  rest,  and  on  whose  head  had  settled  eternal  sunshine. 

That  is  a  pitiful  phrase  in  Ecclesiastes  which  describes 
old  age:  "They  shall  be  afraid  of  that  which  is  high, 
and  fears  shall  be  in  the  way."  When  we  are  afraid 
of  that  which  is  high  we  are  old  men,  whether  we  be 
seventy  or  seventeen.  When  fears  are  in  the  way  of  trustees 
and  churches,  when  fears  are  in  the  way  of  missions  and 
education,  we  are  old  men,  all  of  us,  and  ought  to  leave  the 
stage.  Fears  never  held  back  Stephen  Greene.  He  loved 
that  which  was  high;  his  voice  was  the  bugle  call  as  he 
scaled  the  heights  and  called  on  us  to  follow.  He  never 
ceased  to  grow  intellectually;  his  mind  never  crystallized 
into  that  fatal  fixity  which  is  holding  back  the  church 
of  God  to-day  more  than  anything  else.  His  mind  never 
ceased  to  expand  sympathetically. 

Whenever  he  came  to  Providence  he  would  come  to  us 
and  say,  "  Have  you  got  any  promising  young  men  in  your 
graduating  class?  I  want  to  know  them;  I  have  good 
places  for  some  of  them,"  and  he  picked  out  year  after 
year  those  bright  young  men  and  took  them  with  him 
and  made  them  believe  what  he  believed  of  possibility  and 
opportunity.  Then  one  great  cause  after  another  was  laid 
upon  his  heart;  one  great  appeal  after  another  of  human 
cry  and  human  need  was  laid  upon  that  great  heart  until 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  143 

at  last  it  ceased  to  beat.  He  believed  that  Christianity, 
the  oldest  of  all  things  in  the  world  in  its  motive,  is  the 
newest  of  all  things  in  its  method. 

I  have  thought  of  what  Mr.  Stead  says  of  James  Russell 
Lowell,  "  He  taught  me  how  to  hitch  on  the  newest  philan- 
thropy to  the  old,  old  story  of  Calvary."  Stephen  Greene 
hitched  on  the  newest  method,  the  latest  philanthropic 
educational  device;  I  will  not  say  he  hitched  it  on,  I  will 
say  he  made  it  to  blossom  out  of  the  old,  old  story  of  Cal- 
vary. And  the  secret  of  it  all,  what  was  it?  I  believe 
the  secret  of  it  all  was  his  unswerving  devotion  to  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord.  When  a  man  has  anchored  himself  to 
Jesus  Christ,  he  can  then  be  prepared  for  the  vicissitude 
and  complexity  of  all  our  modern  life. 

If  we  make  self  pre-eminent  our  life  is  pagan;  if  we 
make  some  ancient  creed  or  liturgy  pre-eminent  our  life 
is  but  half  Christian.  In  all  things  He  must  have  the 
pre-eminence,  the  Son  of  Mary,  Son  of  God,  the  fulness 
of  the  Father  in  whom  dwelt  the  divine  bodily.  He  had  the 
pre-eminence  in  the  life  of  Stephen  Greene.  That  is  the 
secret  of  the  fixity  of  its  motive  and  the  versatility  of  its 
method. 

Dear  friends,  I  know  we  are  better  for  having  sat  here 
together  to-night.  May  that  voice  not  cease  to  summon 
us  onward  and  upward ;  may  that  message  of  sympathy  with 
one's  own  era  of  faith  in  the  modern  working  of  ancient 
Providence  come  home  to  our  hearts  and  our  lives,  and 
then  some  day, 

"Love  will  dream  and  faith  will  trust, 
Since  He  who  knows  our  need  is  just, 
That  somehow,  somewhere,  meet  we  must." 


144  STEPHEN    GREENE 

A   FRIEND    OF   THE   SOUTH 
REV.  HENRY  L.  MOREHOUSE,  D.D., 

Field  Secretary  of  the  American  Baptist   Home  Mission  Society 

On  Sunday  night,  in  the  city  of  Atlanta,  at  the  closing 
service  of  the  celebration  of  the  twentieth  anniversary 
of  Spellman  Seminary,  in  the  large  and  beautiful  chapel 
of  Rockefeller  Hall,  furnished  and  adorned  by  Rev.  William 
Howe,  whom  you  all  know,  a  large  concourse  of  people, 
consisting  of  the  faculty,  members,  trustees  of  the  insti- 
tution, visiting  friends,  students,  and  others,  by  formal  vote 
expressed  their  sorrow  at  the  loss  of  Mr.  Stephen  Greene, 
a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  that  institution,  and 
authorized  me  to  express  to  his  kindred  and  household 
their  sympathy  in  their  great  bereavement. 

Similar  expression  I  bear  from  the  American  Baptist 
Home  Mission  Society,  whose  vice-president  he  was  for 
three  years,  whose  president  he  was  for  three  years,  whose 
memorable  address  at  Detroit  marked  perhaps  an  era  in 
the  organized  activities  of  our  denominational  work. 

In  confirmation  of  what  has  been  said  here  concerning 
the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  in  the  South,  I  may 
say  that  on  my  trip  to  Atlanta  a  week  ago,  picking  up 
casually  a  newspaper  of  North  Carolina,  I  was  gratified 
to  find  an  extended  notice  of  Mr.  Greene,  and  a  public 
expression  through  its  columns  of  the  sorrow  which  had 
come  to  the  Southland  because  one  of  its  captains  of  indus- 
try, and  one  of  its  men  in  highest  esteem,  had  passed  so  sud- 
denly and  unexpectedly  away. 

Wide  is  the  sorrow  felt  by  the  loss  of  this  our  loved 
brother.  In  the  high  northern  latitudes  after  sunset  there 
is  a  long  afterglow.  Though  the  light  of  this  life  has  gone 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  145 

out,  we  live  in  its  afterglow  now.  Oh,  how  many  suns 
have  set  in  New  England  in  our  denominational  life ! 
Only  the  other  day  I  was  looking  over  the  list  of  men 
whom  I  had  known  during  twenty-two  years,  and  my 
heart  almost  stood  still  as  I  recounted  those  whom  I  had 
known,  but  whom  I  know  no  more  on  earth.  Stephen  Greene 
was  one  of  the  noblest  of  them  all.  He  was  high-minded ; 
he  was  broad-minded ;  he  was  far-sighted;  he  condescended 
to  men  of  low  estate;  a  most  gracious  man,  gracious  in 
that  kindly  gleam  of  his  eye,  gracious  in  the  beautiful 
play  of  his  features,  gracious  in  the  very  tones  of  his 
voice,  gracious  in  the  cadence  of  his  utterance,  gracious 
in  the  grasp  of  his  hand,  gracious  in  manner,  gracious  in 
his  intercourse,  full  of  grace  and  truth,  a  thorough  Christian 
gentleman.  We  see  him  no  more. 

I  am  reminded  at  this  moment  of  the  lines  with  which 
he  closed  his  address  at  Detroit,  in  1900,  on  the  joy  of  living. 
I  think  he  experienced  the  joy  of  living  and  the  joy  of  giving, 
having  drank  in  the  spirit  of  his  Master,  so  that  of  him 
we  can  truly  say,  as  your  own  poet  Whittier  has  said  in 
these  memorial  verses  concerning  a  departed  friend, 

"With  us  was  one  who,  kind  and  true, 
Life's  noblest  purpose  understood; 
Who  like  his  blessed   Master  knew 
r  The  joy  of  doing  good." 

COMMUNICATION  FROM  LEMUEL  C.  BARNES,  D.  D., 

Pastor  of  the  Fourth  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

God's  ways  are  not  our  ways.  The  demands  of  feel- 
ing and  the  requirements  of  duty  often  conflict.  A  critical 
juncture  in  the  welfare  of  a  number  of  inquiring  souls 
prevents  me  from  yielding  to  the  clamors  of  my  heart  to 


146  STEPHEN   GREENE 

be  with  you  at  this  time  in  the  place  hallowed  by  the 
familiar  presence  of  Stephen  Greene,  and  to  join  my  voice 
with  yours  in  tributes  of  loving  memory.  He  was  so  dear 
and  intimate  in  fellowship  that  I  feel  sure  of  what  he  would 
say.  Feelings,  however  deep  and  imperious,  must  yield  to 
the  dictates  of  plain,  homely  duty. 

He  knows.  He,  too,  was  not  his  own.  He  was  a 
minister;  one  of  his  great  services  to  the  cause  he  loved 
was  the  demonstration  of  the  universal  priesthood  of 
believers.  His  work  in  the  world  for  Christ,  and  he  did 
no  work  which  was  not  for  Christ,  rises  in  greatness  before 
our  minds  here  in  Newton,  and  in  this  room  where  so  many 
men  are  graduated  into  the  Christian  ministry.  His  life 
makes  clear  the  fact  that  the  sacred  calling  is  not  profes- 
sional or  confined  to  a  profession.  No  minister  in  our 
whole  denomination  could  live  a  life  more  unmistakably, 
heart  and  soul,  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  kingdom 
of  God.  None  could  do  a  work  more  effective  for  the 
advancement  of  the  kingdom.  He  was  a  sympathetic  and 
unsurpassed  friend  of  ministers,  so-called,  because  he  felt, 
in  its  deep  realities,  the  same  vocation.  He  stands  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  first-century  and  the  twentieth-century 
ideal  of  "holy  orders,"  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

"No  monkish  garb  he  wears,  no  beads  he  tells, 

Nor  is  immured  in  walls  remote  from  strife  ; 
But  from  his  heart  deep  mercy  ever  wells ; 
He  looks  humanely  forth  on  human  life. 

"No  mediaeval  mystery,  no  crowned 

Dim  figure  halo-ringed,  uncanny  bright ; 
A  modern  saint !  a  man  who  treads  earth's  ground 
And  ministers  to  men  with  all  his  might." 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  147 

Another  unique  impression  he  has  left  upon  us  all,  that 
of  a  certain  divine  largeness  of  soul.  Most  men,  however 
good,  are  not  large  enough  to  combine  the  opposite  poles 
of  goodness  in  one  round  sphere  of  character.  They  are 
emphatically  this  or  emphatically  that,  but  not  grandly 
both.  In  God  alone  are  the  antitheses  of  goodness  perfectly 
blended.  But  in  this  respect'Stephen  Greene  was  an  unusu- 
ally godlike  man.  By  birth,  training,  and  affection  he  was 
a  New  Englandcr  of  New  Englanders;  but  men  of  the 
West  felt  that  he  was  decidedly  of  their  own  type  of 
manhood.  In  the  South,  too,  he  evoked  a  warm  sense 
of  brotherhood.  He  was  devoted  in  a  marked  way  to  the 
established  institutions  of  life,  domestic,  social,  educational, 
religious;  yet  he  was  eager  for  improvements,  and  wher- 
ever possible,  thorough-going  reconstruction. 

Far  beyond  most  men,  he  was  careful  and  considerate 
of  the  opinions  of  others,  going  to  the  utmost  in  consulting 
them  and  deferring  to  them;  at  the  same  time  he  had  no 
lack  in  independence  of  judgment  or  in  personal  initiative. 
His  life  was  not  only  touched,  it  was  controlled  by  tender 
sentiment  and  fine  feeling;  at  the  same  time  he  possessed 
and  exercised  hard,  business  sense,  issuing  in  effective  prac- 
tical measures.  He  was  conspicuous  in  loyalty  to  his  home 
church,  and  at  the  same  time  foremost  in  devotion  to  fields 
farther  away.  Among  these  farther  fields,  again,  he  was 
filled  with  holy  indignation  at  those  who  were  so  small  as 
to  be  enthusiastic  only  in  home  missions  or  only  in  foreign 
missions,  or  only  in  some  one  organization  for  advancing 
the  cause. 

The  comprehensive  spirit  that  built  up  a  great  business 
by  co-ordinating  forces  in  widely  separated  states  and  reor- 
ganizing old  industries  on  twentieth-century  lines,  could  not 


148  STEPHEN    GREENE 

fail  to  question  our  right  to  conduct  the  sacred  business  of 
home  and  foreign  missions  by  methods  installed  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  He  was  no  visionary  enthusiast 
wandering  too  far  ahead  of  his  age  to  co-operate  with  its 
forces.  Rather  he  was  the  keen-eyed  seer,  discerning  the 
signs  of  the  times,  bravely  announcing  the  needs  of  the 
hour,  ready  to  give  unstintedly  of  precious  time  and  more 
precious  vitality,  to  bring  our  missionary  methods  abreast 
with  the  rapidly  unfolding  providence  of  God,  and  into 
such  co-ordination  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  may  most 
efficiently  run,  and  be  glorified  around  the  whole  earth,  till 
the  will  of  God  be  indeed  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
A  life  of  such  divine  scope  as  that  of  Stephen  Greene 
lifts  and  enlarges  all  our  lives  and  sends  them  heavenward. 
He  was, 

"One  who  never  turned  his  back  but  marched  breast  forward, 

Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 

Never  dreamed,  though  right  were  worsted, wrong  would  triumph, 
Held  we  fall  to  rise,  are  baffled  to  fight  better, 
Sleep  to  wake." 

And  so 

"At  noonday,  in  the  bustle  of  man's  work-time," 
he  could 

"Greet  the  unseen  with  a  cheer ! 
Bid  him  forward,  breast  and  back  as  either  should  be, 
*  Strive  and  thrive  ! '   cry  'Speed,  fight  on,  fare  ever 
There  as  here !'" 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES  149 

THE    BOSTON    BAPTIST   SOCIAL    UNION 

At  the  meeting  held  December  2,  1901,  there, 
was  placed  by  every  plate  a  folded  leaf,  on  the  front 
page  of  which  was  printed: 

STEPHEN  GREENE 

BORN  SEPTEMBER  27,  1851 

DIED  NOVEMBER  7,  1901 

On  the  inner  third  page  was  a  fine  portrait,  while 
on  the  second  page  were  these  lines,  written  for  the 
occasion  by  a  dear  friend,  Stephen  Moore: 

STEPHEN  GREENE 

"We  loved  him  well;   and  who  that  saw  that  face 
So  full  of  buoyant  hope  and  honor  bright, 
So  radiant  every  line  with  heavenly  light 
That  told  of  inward  purity  and  grace, — 
Aye,  who  that  saw  could  fairly  fail  to  trace 
The  subtle  shining  of  a  spirit  rare, 
So  filled  with  generous  thought  for  others'   care 
That  nothing  vain  or  vulgar  found  a  place! 

"We  loved  him  well;   but  he,  best  of  us  all, 

And  most  beloved,  has  heard  the  voice  of  One 
Who  loved   him  more  than  we,  and   One  whose  call 

He  ever  heeded.     Spake  his  Lord,    '  Well  done, 
Thou  faithful  servant.     Rest  where  cares  surcease 
Forever^  in  thy   Father's   House  of  Peace.'  ' 

Henry  F.  Kendall,  an  intimate  companion  and 
beloved  co-laborer  in  more  than  one  sphere,  gave  the 
Memorial  Address,  which  was  in  part  as  follows  : 


i5o  STEPHEN    GREENE 

Our  hearts  refused  to  credit  the  report  that  one  so  strong, 
so  full  of  vigor,  so  replete  with  energy,  holding,  apparently, 
the  promise  of  many  years  of  usefulness  and  activity,  could 
have  stopped  in  the  midst  of  life's  race;  no,  not  that, 
could  have  so  soon  finished  life's  race,  and  entered  into 
his  reward. 

To  those  who  knew  our  brother  no  words  of  mine 
are  needed  to  present  his  image.  Memory  holds  enshrined 
the  bright,  smiling  countenance,  the  hearty  welcome,  the 
cordial  grasp  of  the  hand,  the  spirit  of  fellowship  and  love 
which  he  bore  with  him.  He  gained  men's  confidence 
because  he  was  so  thoroughly  in  earnest,  so  clear  and 
decided  in  his  views,  and  yet  so  courteous  and  generous 
in  his  treatment  of  all  who  might  differ  from  him  as  to  the 
truth  or  as  to  the  wisdom  of  any  proposed  action. 

We  might  almost  believe  that  Stephen  Greene  was 
a  minister,  and  so  he  was;  a  preacher,  and  so  he  was; 
a  man  of  God,  and  so  he  was;  but  with  all  this  and  in  all 
this  Stephen  Greene  was  pre-eminently  a  business  man. 

In  the  school  of  experience  he  had  been  operative, 
overseer,  treasurer,  and  owner.  He  knew  both  the  practice 
and  the  theory  of  his  profession.  He  could  decide  wisely 
what  would  benefit  and  improve  the  work  to  be  done, 
or  simplify  its  processes.  He  knew  all  the  phases  of  the 
work  of  his  mills,  and  this  was  soon  recognized  by  his 
clients,  and  his  advice  and  services  were  increasingly  sought 
for.  Many  of  the  plants  designed  by  him  refused  to  part  with 
him  upon  the  completion  of  the  mills,  and  retained  him  as  pro- 
fessional adviser,  director,  or  stockholder,  that  they  might 
profit  by  his  special  abilities. 

His  unswerving  justice,  honesty,  and  the  absolute  fair- 
ness of  his  relations  with  those  employed  in  building  and 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES  151 

equipping  the  plants  erected  under  his  care  were  such  as 
to  secure  the  confidence  of  both  owner  and  contractor, 
and  his  name  stands  unquestioned  for  a  synonym  of  busi- 
ness integrity  and  honorable  dealing.  No  one  after  meet- 
ing him  had  any  doubt  where  Lockwood,  Greene  &  Co. 
stood  as  professional  advisers,  or  thought  that  anything 
but  merit  could  commend  itself  to  their  attention. 

That  such  a  man  should  succeed  was  a  foregone  con- 
clusion, and  that  his  success  gave  him  great  delight  no  one 
will  question,  for  success  meant  to  him  a  trusteeship  by 
divine  appointment,  and  he  accepted  it  as  God  given. 
He  held  all  that  he  had  in  trust  for  the  Giver,  and  dis- 
tributed liberally  to  all  who  had  need.  Generous  in  all 
the  relations  of  life,  he  was  markedly  so  to  any  causes 
which  affected  the  growth  of  his  Master's  Kingdom. 

If  he  was  as  a  business  man  the  embodiment  of  all 
that  a  Christian  should  be,  he  was  as  a  Christian,  and 
herein  I  believe  was  the  secret  of  his  great  usefulness, 
all  that  a  business  man  should  be.  He  believed  that  no 
man  ought  to  render  a  less  efficient  service  to  Christ  than 
he  did  to  his  business;  that  the  church  work,  Bible  school 
work,  institutional  work,  and  philanthropic  work  should  be 
as  carefully  managed,  as  skillfully  planned,  as  thoroughly 
prepared  for,  and  as  intelligently  executed  as  the  building 
of  a  cotton-mill,  or  the  developing  of  a  new  industry. 
He  threw  himself  into  all  that  he  did  with  his  whole 
soul,  and  spent  himself  without  stint  to  serve  the  cause 
he  represented.  He  had  tact  and  a  nice  discrimination 
of  the  fitness  of  things. 

In  the  personal  relations  of  life  he  has  left  many  mourn- 
ing friends,  who  sorrow  like  the  Christians  at  Ephesus  that 
they  shall  "  see  his  face  no  more."  Into  the  family  circle 


i52  STEPHEN    GREENE 

we  may  not  intrude,  save  to  refer  with  tenderest  sympathy 
to  the  wife  of  his  youth,  and  to  wish  added  likeness  to  him 
to  the  noble  sons  who  were  his  delight  and  whose  life- 
training  was  his  high  aim. 

We  mourn  what  seems  an  untimely  end,  but  how  fitting 
his  last  days.  Active  and  full  of  usefulness  to  the  end ; 
a  three  months'  rest  and  communion  with  his  loved  ones, 
and  without  lingering  or  suffering,  entrance  to  the  joys 
of  his  Master,  leaving  not  an  unfinished  but  a  completed 
work  and  a  grateful  memory. 

Stephen  Greene  is  no  longer  with  us;  but  because  he 
has  lived  many  will  bless  God,  some  will  walk  with  God 
hereafter,  and  some  of  us  will  henceforth  have  higher 
standards  of  Christian  living,  and  will  be  grateful  all  our 
days  that  we  were  permitted  to  know  and  love  him. 

The  following  address  was  delivered  before  the 
alumni  of  the  Newton  Theological  Institution  at 
their  mid-year  meeting  December  9,  1901,  at  the 
Brunswick,  Boston : 

STEPHEN  GREENE,  TRUSTEE 
BY  REV.  C.  A.  REESE 

The  Newton  Institution  has  been  fortunate  since  its 
founding  in  having  as  trustees  many  good  and  able  men. 
Some  of  the  most  loyal  and  useful  trustees  who  ever  served 
upon  its  board  are  living  to-day.  They  are  doing  more  for 
Newton  than  the  public  and  more  than  we,  the  alumni, know. 

Among  these,  until  within  a  few  days,  stood  Stephen 
Greene.  His  trusteeship  was  just  eight  and  one-half  years 
in  length.  Though  it  is  a  brief  time  compared  with  the 
forty  or  fifty  years  which  measure  the  terms  of  some  others 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES  153 

in  that  office,  yet  Mr.  Greene  will  always  justly  be  awarded 
a  place  among  Newton's  most  efficient  friends. 

In  the  perspective  behind  the  chair  in  Newton's  coun- 
cil chamber  which  he  recently  left  vacant  we  see  Stephen 
Greene,  the  healthful,  active,  sportive  boy,  the  mill-worker, 
the  overseer  in  the  mill,  the  genial,  conscientious  student, 
the  industrious,  well-equipped,  prayerful  young  business 
man,  happily  settled  in  his  domestic  and  professional  rela- 
tions, the  full-grown,  far-seeing  mill-architect  and  engineer, 
the  friend  of  manufacturers  and  capitalists,  the  lay-worker 
in  churches,  Sunday  schools,  missionary  and  benevolent 
circles. 

He  inherited  rare  gifts.  His  disposition  was  kind  and 
affectionate.  There  was  far  more  sunshine  than  cloud  in 
his  face.  His  smile  was  the  index  of  a  sane  and  happy 
soul.  His  judgment  was  sound,  his  perception  in  the 
realms  within  which  he  worked  quick  and  accurate,  his 
intellectual  powers  above  the  average,  his  moral  instincts 
strong,  and  as  true  to  the  right  as  the  needle  to  the  pole, 
his  conscience  regnant  over  the  whole  man. 

Stephen  Greene  was  the  embodiment  of  three  great 
personal  advantages. 

The  advantage  of  a  combination  of  strong  faculties 
was  his.  We  can  think  of  other  men  who  are  as  genial 
as  he,  or  as  earnest  and  painstaking,  or  as  intellectually 
bright,  or  as  devout,  or  as  sensible,  or  as  hopeful,  or  as 
practical,  or  as  much  in  love  with  the  ideal  as  he,  but  it 
is  difficult  to  find  one  who  combines  in  himself  all  of  these 
qualities  in  as  high  degree  and  keeps  them  in  as  harmonious 
and  equal  action  and  reaction  upon  one  another.  This 
liberal,  all-around  equipment  made  him  the  rare  man  that 
he  was. 


i54  STEPHEN    GREENE 

He  had  the  advantage  of  being  a  doer.  He  did  not 
care  for  any  theory  which  could  not  be  put  into  practice. 
In  an  exceptional  measure  he  loved  work,  and  did  things. 
He  did  not  believe  in  the  religious  cant  of  expecting  the 
divine  blessing  upon  idleness.  He  wanted  things  to  be 
accomplished,  and  accomplished  in  a  manner  to  do  honor 
to  the  work  itself.  He  could  not  do  a  task  in  a  poor 
manner.  He  had  a  horror  of  permitting  things  to  go  by 
default.  No  one  ever  heard  him  say  that  a  thing  could 
not  be  done  which  ought  to  be  done,  nor  heard  him  advise 
taking  backward  steps.  Mr.  Greene  was  ready  to  do  his 
own  part,  and  the  part  of  another  man  in  addition. 

He  possessed  the  advantage  of  thorough  integrity  of 
soul.  The  Psalmist  who  drew  the  picture  of  a  man  that 
"hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart;  who  hath  not  lifted  up 
his  soul  unto  vanity,  and  hath  not  sworn  deceitfully," 
would  recognize  his  ideal  in  Stephen  Greene.  Open  him- 
self as  the  blue  vault  of  heaven,  he  loved  righteousness  and 
hated  iniquity.  The  conduct  of  his  business,  no  less  than 
his  daily  personal  and  religious  life,  revealed  the  genuine, 
refined  gold  of  character. 

They  are  mistaken  who  think  Mr.  Greene  could  only 
fill  the  role  of  a  pleasant,  good-natured  man.  He  was 
capable  of  indignant  feeling  and  expression,  of  electric 
force  and  flash,  when,  in  his  view,  truth  and  justice  were 
jeopardized.  All  of  the  superb  force  of  his  will,  of  his 
rich  inward  and  outward  manhood,  would  then  defend  the 
cause  of  right.  It  was  such  uprightness  which  gave  him 
the  confidence  of  his  associates  and  of  his  clients. 

One  business  man,  a  millionaire,  said :  "  They  say  there 
is  nothing  in  the  world  as  timid  as  a  million  dollars,  except 
a  second  million  dollars.  Now,  a  million  dollars  would  go 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  155 

into  his  office  and  talk  with  him  and  look  into  his  face,  and 
leave  itself  there  for  him  to  expend,  and  it  would  get  a 
second  million  to  do  the  same." 

Mr.  Greene  came  to  live  in  Newton  Centre  in  1890. 
He  was  then  in  the  full  strength  of  his  manhood.  He 
brought  to  Newton's  aid  his  magnificent  manhood,  his 
special  training,  his  ability  to  plan  safely,  largely,  success- 
fully, in  the  use  of  material  things,  his  almost  magic  influence 
upon  his  fellow-men.  It  followed  with  logical  certainty 
that  he  would  have  an  important  part  in  the  work  which 
needed  to  be  done  for  the  institution. 

He  was  elected  trustee  May  17,  1893.  A  short  time 
thereafter  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  committee  on  a 
library  building,  for  it  is  recorded  that  on  February  16, 
1894,  the  committee  reported  "through  Stephen  Greene." 
The  committee  also  recommended  the  repairing  of  Colby 
Hall.  The  idea  of  a  new  library  building  had  been  before 
the  trustees  for  a  year  or  more,  but  Mr.  Greene's  con- 
structive genius  revealed  itself  in  this  report,  and  the 
meeting  at  that  time  voted  to  build  the  library  and  repair 
Colby  Hall  at  an  expense  of  $65,000. 

He  was  elected  a  member  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  board  of  trustees,  May  16,  1894;  a  member  of  the 
committee  on  buildings  and  grounds,  May  21,  1894.  He  re- 
ported progress  in  constructing  the  library  building,  Septem- 
ber 24,  1894.  He  presented  to  the  executive  committee, 
October  9,  1894,  a  proposition  concerning  the  building 
of  a  central  heating  plant.  The  trustees  in  meeting, 
October  29,  1894,  approved  the  plan,  and  authorized 
the  building  committee  to  proceed  to  build  the  same,  and 
appropriated  for  it  $10,000.  That  economical  scientific 
plant  upon  the  hill  was  the  result  of  this  action  —  a  great 


156  STEPHEN   GREENE 

practical  advantage  to  the  institution  —  but  the  building 
of  it,  with  its  furnaces  and  engines  and  tall  chimney, 
was  only  a  by-play  to  this  skillful  engineer. 

The  dedication  of  the  Hills  Library  took  place  in 
July,  1895.  Its  thorough  workmanship,  its  fire-proof  con- 
struction, its  convenient  stack-room,  its  large  and  light  and 
beautiful  reading-room,  its  simple  lines  and  elegance,  speak 
in  a  great  degree  of  Mr.  Greene's  ideas  of  usefulness, 
solidity,  and  grace. 

The  building  committee  reported  June  10, 1896,  through 
its  chairman,  Stephen  Greene,  with  reference  to  Colby  Hall. 
It  was  voted  that  the  building  committee  should  make  im- 
provements necessary  in  their  judgment.  In  March,  1896, 
he  was  put  upon  a  committee  to  secure  the  service  of  a 
financial  secretary.  In  February,  1897,  he  delivered  to  the 
chairman  of  the  executive  committee,  in  the  name  of  the 
building  committee,  the  keys  of  Colby  Hall,  thoroughly 
renovated,  and  of  the  chapel  which  had  been  constructed 
out  of  the  part  of  Colby  Hall  previously  occupied  by  the 
library. 

In  January,  1898,  Mr.  Greene  was  made  chairman 
of  the  endowment  committee.  At  the  annual  meeting 
of  the  trustees  in  1898,  the  committee  of  which  he  was 
chairman  was  authorized  to  proceed  with  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  Farwell  Hall.  The  furnishing  of  Farwell  Hall, 
in  such  a  comfortable  and  uniform  manner  as  it  is,  was 
his  own  idea.  In  June,  1899,  the  trustees  voted  to  build 
a  house  for  the  president,  and  Mr.  Greene  was  appointed, 
with  another  trustee,  to  execute  the  will  of  the  trustees. 

Then,  as  a  sequence  of  these  improvements,  the  com- 
mittee was  authorized  to  construct  waterworks  for  the 
institution;  and  they  have  been  built  upon  a  scientific 


MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES  157 

and  at  the  same  time  an  artistic  plan.  These  services  were 
not  all  by  any  means.  Being  a  resident  of  Newton  Centre, 
he  was  given  many  other  responsibilities  for  Newton.  He 
assisted  in  laying  out  the  streets  of  the  city  relative  to  the 
institution's  real  estate;  he  visited  the  assessors  when  neces- 
sary ;  he  represented  the  trustees  frequently  in  adjusting  rela- 
tions with  the  professors ;  he  was  the  loyal  advocate  of  the 
institution  in  his  church. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  overlook  the  valuable  assistance 
which  members  with  him  of  these  committees  rendered 
to  the  institution.  He  was  so  constituted  that  others 
loved  to  be  associated  with  him  in  manifold  works.  He 
knew  his  own  limitations  in  certain  directions,  and  willingly 
followed  the  judgment  of  others  in  their  special  departments. 
They  in  their  turn  trusted  his  scientific  knowledge,  his  wide 
observation  of  men,  were  moved  by  the  inspiration  of  his 
clear  vision  and  winning  voice,  and  loyally  followed  him. 
He  was  always  generous  in  his  recognition  of  aid  from 
associates. 

It  was  his  privilege,  within  a  few  short  years,  to  take 
an  important  part  in  the  transformation  of  the  material 
side  of  the  institution.  While  he  was  chairman  of  the 
endowment  committee,  the  trustees  and  friends  of  the  insti- 
tution added  $300,000  to  the  endowment  funds. 

But  his  interest  was  not  as  great  in  the  material  and 
financial  improvement  of  the  institution  as  in  the  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  advancement  of  it.  It  grieved  him 
that  the  students  did  not  show,  by  an  increased  attendance 
at  daily  chapel,  a  greater  appreciation  of  "  the  best  room  " 
of  all  the  institution.  He  at  one  time  said  to  me  that, 
while  he  loved  Brown  University,  and  was  interested  in 
Worcester  Academy,  he  was  determined  to  give  the  most 


158  STEPHEN    GREENE 

of  his  strength  and  life  to  the  Newton  Institution,  for  it  was 
fundamental  to  the  cause  of  Christ  in  all  its  interests.  He 
was  penetrative  enough,  devout  enough  to  see  and  to  believe 
with  all  his  earnest  soul  that  an  educated  ministry  is  the  first 
requisite  to  every  department  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

For  himself  he  did  not  seek  or  desire  any  other  religious 
beliefs  than  those  which  he  learned  at  his  mother's  knee, 
and  from  his  father's  life,  and  in  his  parents'  church ;  but 
for  the  coming  ministry  he  coveted  the  liberty  of  full  inves- 
tigation under  devout  and  scholarly  teachers,  and  for  the 
boys  and  girls  in  academies  and  colleges  he  wished  pastors 
and  preachers  to  whom  they  may  gladly  listen. 

This  life  exemplified  what  Stephen  Greene  believed 
a  trustee  of  Newton  should  be.  When  he  was  contem- 
plating removing  his  home  from  Newbur  port  to  some 
suburb  of  Boston,  his  pastor  advised  him  to  go  to  New- 
ton Centre,  for,  said  he,  the  church  believes  in  the  con- 
version of  children  and  your  children  will  be  converted, 
and  in  ten  years  you  will  give  away  five  times  as  much 
money  as  you  will  in  any  other  church  home. 

This  remarkable  advice  was  followed,  and  the  prediction 
was  verified.  In  giving,  Mr.  Greene  probably  surpassed  the 
prophecy.  But  we  now  see  more  clearly  than  we  saw  while 
he  was  living  that  he  was  giving  to  the  Newton  Institution 
more  than  his  money,  or  his  time,  or  his  service,  or  strength. 
He  was  giving  much  of  his  reserve  vitality,  much  of  his 
very  life,  to  Newton;  nay,  not  to  Newton,  but  to  his 
Lord  through  Newton,  whose  Newton  is. 

His  intimate  friends  sometimes  said  to  him  that  the 
chimney  of  the  heating  plant  on  Newton  Hill  would  be  his 
monument.  He  received  the  humorous  remark  in  the 
spirit  in  which  it  was  made.  That  chimney  is  100  feet 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES  159 

high.  The  Bunker  Hill  monument  is  221  feet  high. 
There  are  more  than  a  dozen  chimneys  which  he  designed 
2OO  feet  high ;  there  are  two  others  which  he  constructed 
250  feet  high. 

If  his  wish  had  been  for  a  material  memorial,  he  has 
many  of  that  kind.  He  did  not  desire  such  a  thing,  though 
I  believe  his  friends  will  see  to  it  that  there  shall  be  a  special 
memorial  to  him  upon  the  hill  which  he  so  dearly  loved. 
He  asked  for  no  visible  monument,  no  laudatory  epitaph,  but 
it  was  the  deepest,  strongest,  most  consuming  desire  of  his 
noble  heart  to  discharge  every  duty  as  a  trustee  of  Newton 
Institution,  and  all  other  responsibilities,  according  to  the 
standard  of  an  intelligent  Christian  man,  and  of  personal 
honor  and  fidelity  to  the  trust  committed  to  him  by  his 
fellow-men  and  by  his  God. 


RESOLUTIONS,  LETTERS,  AND 
OTHER  TRIBUTES 


"A  good  name  is  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great  riches, 
and  favour  is  better  than  silver  and  gold"-  —  PROVERBS. 

"The  friends  of  the  world  are  oft 
Confederacies  in  vice  or  leagues  of  pleasure: 
Ours  has  severest  virtue  for  its  basis, 
And  such  a  friendship  ends  not  but  with  fife." 

—  ADDISON. 


XIV 

RESOLUTIONS,    LETTERS,  AND 
OTHER   TRIBUTES 

From  the  large  mass  of  material  in  hand  a  selec- 
tion has  been  made  with  a  view  to  give,  so  far  as 
possible,  distinct  phases  of  his  life-work,  relation- 
ships, and  influence: 

THE  PACOLET  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY 

At  a  meeting  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Pacolet 
Manufacturing  Company,  this  day  held  at  the  company's 
office,  in  the  city  of  Spartanburg,  S.  C.,  the  following 
resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted: 

41  Whereas,  it  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  remove 
from  his  sphere  of  usefulness  Stephen  Greene,  leaving  a 
vacancy  on  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Pacolet  Manu- 
facturing Company,  it  is  meet  and  proper  that  we  should 
pay  tribute  to  his  memory,  and  give  expression  to  our  sense 
of  the  great  loss  sustained. 

"Mr.  Greene  had  been  connected  with  the  Pacolet 
Manufacturing  Company  from  the  inception  of  the  enter- 
prise, in  1882.  He  designed  the  first  mill  built  by  the 
company,  and  has  been  a  director  since  1884. 

"Our  deceased  friend  was  essentially  a  doer  of  things; 
he  stood  as  a  leader  in  his  profession,  and  mills  in  many 
states  stand  as  monuments  to  his  genius. 

"The  work  and  brains  of  such  men  as  Stephen  Greene 
have  transformed  the  South  from  an  agricultural  com- 

163 


164  STEPHEN    GREENE 

munity  into  the  great  cotton  manufacturing  district  that  it 
now  is,  and  to  him  the  South  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude. 

"Mr.  Greene  was  to  be  admired  not  only  for  his  skill 
in  his  chosen  profession,  but  he  was  esteemed  for  his  worth 
and  value  as  a  man,  and  loved  for  all  that  makes  life  worth 
living,  for  he  was  all  that  is  best  expressed  in  the  word 
4  a  Christian.' 

"  Now,  therefore,  be  it  resolved,  that  the  company  has 
lost  an  active  member,  a  strong  counselor,  and  wise  direc- 
tor, and  that  the  directors  each  feel  that  a  good  man, 
courteous  associate,  and  personal  friend  has  been  taken 
from  them. 

41  Be  it  further  resolved,  that  a  copy  of  these  resolu- 
tions be  forwarded  to  the  bereaved  family  of  our  departed 
associate,  as  a  mark  of  respect  and  tribute  to  his  worth  and 
integrity,  as  an  expression  of  our  esteem  for  him. 

"  Be  it  further  resolved,  that  these  resolutions  be  spread 
upon  the  minutes,  and  that  a  page  be  dedicated  to  his 
memory. 

"  JOHN  H.  MONTGOMERY,  President. 
"  SPARTANBURG,  S.  C.,  March  26,  1902." 

D.  A.  TOMPKINS 

If  it  were  feasible  I  should  not  hesitate  to  travel  the 
whole  distance  from  here  to  Newton  to  show  my  apprecia- 
tion of  the  distinguished  services  that  Mr.  Greene  rendered 
to  the  whole  country  in  the  development  of  our  resources, 
and  in  enriching  the  people  by  the  contributions  to  the 
general  welfare,  of  a  broad  knowledge,  an  excellent  judg- 
ment, indomitable  energy,  and  capability  in  his  profession. 

He  was  a  man  who,  seeing  opportunities  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  people  of  any  section,  was  zealous  to  show  the 


RESOLUTIONS    AND   LETTERS      165 

way,  and  lend  a  helping  hand  without  prejudice.  Here  in 
the  South  he  has  formed  friendships  and  partnerships  which 
have  gone  far  to  create  and  foster  common  interests  between 
the  people  of  the  North  and  South,  which  have  done  more 
towards  softening  asperities  and  removing  prejudices  than 
could  have  been  done  in  any  other  way.  These  beneficent 
results  of  his  work  will  continue  to  live  and  continue  to 
grow.  They  will  not  be  lost  by  his  death,  but  their  influ- 
ence for  good  will  be  greater  as  time  passes,  and  be 
appreciated  by  the  next  generation  better  perhaps  than 
by  this  one. 

I  am  impelled  to  take  the  liberty  to  send  this  tribute  of 
my  personal  high  regard  for  the  man  and  the  engineer. 

D.  A.  TOMPKINS. 
CHARLOTTE,  N.  C.,  November  16,  1901. 

GENERAL  ELECTRIC  COMPANY 

In  the  decease  of  Mr.  Stephen  Greene  we  sincerely 
feel  that  the  community  has  lost  one  of  its  most  esteemed 
citizens,  and  the  profession  one  of  its  valued  and  progressive 
members.  He  had  the  ability  to  originate  as  well  as  a 
desire  to  adopt  whatever  would  best  contribute  to  the  devel- 
opment of  his  art.  Professionally  and  personally  he  inspired 
us  with  the  most  profound  respect  and  admiration,  and  we 
wish  to  take  this  opportunity  to  express  to  you  our  keen 
appreciation  of  the  great  loss  experienced,  both  by  us  per- 
sonally and  the  whole  engineering  profession,  by  his  death. 
GENERAL  ELECTRIC  Co., 

J.  R.  McKEE, 

Gen'l  Mgr.  Power  and  Mining  Dept. 
NEW  YORK  OFFICE,  November  u,  1901. 


166  STEPHEN    GREENE 

FLYNT  BUILDING  AND  CONSTRUCTION  COMPANY 

We  received  with  great  surprise  and  sincere  regrets  the 
sad  announcement  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Stephen  Greene. 
We  are  saddened  beyond  expression,  and  sincerely  sympa- 
thize with  you  and  your  associates  in  the  great  loss  you  have 
sustained.  Our  acquaintance  and  business  dealings  with 
Mr.  Greene,  which  extended  over  a  period  of  fifteen  years, 
were  certainly  most  pleasant.  Though  carrying  the  cares 
and  anxieties  of  a  very  busy  life,  he  was  ever  the  kindest 
of  critics,  the  soundest  of  advisers,  and  one  who  appre- 
ciated every  honest  effort.  We  all  consider  his  death  a 
personal  loss,  but  we  realize  that  it  has  been  a  privilege  to 
know  a  man  so  strong,  so  upright,  so  large-minded,  and  so 
noble  in  every  way. 

FLYNT  BUILDING  AND  CONSTRUCTION  Co., 

A.  T.  WING,  President. 
PALMER,  MASS.,  November  13,  1901. 

CHARLES  HAMLIN 

No  one  had  a  higher  esteem  for  Mr.  Greene  than  myself. 
His  sweet,  pure  character,  and  high  order  of  ability  in  his 
profession,  all  make  his  death  a  public  loss.  I  have  never 
met  any  man  in  business  upon  whom  I  could  always  rely 
with  more  confidence  for  his  integrity,  sound  judgment,  and 
real  genius  as  a  mill  architect  than  Mr.  Greene. 

Please  extend  my  sincere  sympathy  to  his  son,  who,  I 
am  glad  to  learn,  will  step  into  his  father's  place,  and  whom 
I  will  gladly  remember  in  that  relation. 

CHAS.  HAMLIN. 
BANGOR,  November  16,  1901. 


RESOLUTIONS    AND   LETTERS      167 

GAINESVILLE  COTTON  MILLS 

The  following  extract  from  the  report  of  the 
president  of  the  Gainesville  Cotton  Mills,  made  to 
the  stockholders,  at  the  annual  meeting,  held  in 
Spartanburg,  S.  C.,  November  26,  1901,  was,  on 
motion,  ordered  to  be  sent  to  the  family  of  Mr. 
Greene : 

"  It  becomes  our  sad  duty  to  chronicle  the  death  of  one 
of  our  directors,  Mr.  Stephen  Greene,  at  Newton  Centre, 
Mass.,  November  7,  1901.  In  his  death  the  company  has 
sustained  a  distinct  loss.  Wise  in  counsel,  clear  and  far- 
seeing  in  judgment,  approachable  for  advice,  loyal  to  the 
affairs  intrusted  to  his  keeping,  Mr.  Greene  was  indeed  a 
valuable  acquisition  to  any  board.  His  grasp  of  difficult 
problems,  his  attention  to  details,  and  his  capacity  for  work 
were  remarkable.  To  the  entire  corporation  his  death  is 
a  great  misfortune,  but  to  those  who  were  privileged  to  be 
in  close  touch  with  the  man,  it  is  a  personal  bereavement." 

ABBEVILLE   COTTON   MILLS 

RESOLUTIONS    IN    MEMORY    OF    MR.    STEPHEN    GREENE 

At  a  meeting  of  the  local  directors  of  the  Abbe- 
ville Cotton  Mills,  the  following  preamble  and  reso- 
lutions were  unanimously  adopted : 

"  Whereas,  the  intelligence  has  been  received  of  the 
unexpected  death  of  Mr.  Stephen  Greene  of  Boston,  who 
has  been  identified  with  the  Abbeville  Cotton  Mills  from 
its  earliest  inception,  first  as  architect  and  subsequently 
as  one  of  the  board  of  directors;  and, 

"  Whereas,   his   associates   on   said  board    in   the  city 


168  STEPHEN    GREENE 

of  Abbeville  desire  to  give  expression  to  their  sense  of  the 
severe  loss  sustained  by  his  death,  it  is 

"  Resolved,  that  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Stephen  Greene 
the  Abbeville  Cotton  Mills  has  been  deprived  of  one  of  its 
staunchest  friends,  and  the  Mills  erected  under  his  super- 
vision bear  lasting  testimony  to  his  skill  as  architect. 

"  Resolved,  that  in  his  intercourse  with  us  we  ever 
found  him  a  high-toned,  genial,  and  cultured  gentleman, 
and  though  coming  to  us  an  entire  stranger  he  soon  won 
our  highest  personal  esteem  and  affectionate  regards,  and 
we  feel  that  we  have  personally  lost  a  friend,  one  who 
by  identifying  himself  with  the  Abbeville  Cotton  Mills 
contributed  largely  to  the  successful  erection  of  the  mill 
buildings,  which  have  no  superior  in  the  state. 

"  Resolved,  that  we  hereby  tender  to  the  family  of  Mr. 
Stephen  Greene  the  expression  of  our  warmest  sympathy 
in  their  heavy  bereavement,  with  the  assurance  his  name 
will  be  held  in  affectionate  remembrance  by  us  all  who 
have  been  so  pleasantly  associated  with  him  for  some 
years. 

"Resolved,  that  the  secretary  of  this  board  do  forward 
to  the  family  of  Mr.  Stephen  Greene  a  copy  of  the  pre- 
amble and  resolutions,  and  that  a  page  in  the  minute  book 
be  dedicated  to  his  memory,  and  that  these  resolutions  be 
recorded  in  the  minutes,  and  that  the  county  papers  be 
requested  to  publish  the  same. 

"\VM.  H.  PARKER,  Secretary." 

JOHN  C.  GARY 

A  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  Stephen  Greene  came  to  us 
at  a  time  when  the  people  of  his  country  and  our  own  knew 
comparatively  little  of  each  other.  He  came  as  a  friend 


RESOLUTIONS    AND   LETTERS      169 

in  his  young  manhood  bearing  the  evidences  of  a  true, 
honest  nature.  We  received  him  as  such;  we  trusted  him; 
we  honored  him;  and  later  we  loved  him.  He  reciprocated 
the  feeling,  and  thus  was  woven  a  cord  which  death  alone 
could  sever  in  twain.  He  abided  with  us  as  a  friend, 
a  builder  of  both  enterprises  and  characters.  He  died 
in  the  prime  of  manhood,  and  before  his  work  with  us 
was  finished.  The  zenith  of  his  usefulness  had  not  been 
reached.  He  had  not  reaped  the  full  harvest  of  his  talents 
and  energies,  monuments  of  which  stand  in  almost  every 
Southern  state,  as  enduring  as  time  itself. 

But  while  his  life  was  largely  devoted  to  business, 
Mr.  Greene  was  not  a  stranger  to  the  homes  and  social 
life  of  those  who  knew  him.  His  kind,  genial  nature, 
warm  heart,  and  Christian  graces  endeared  him  to  all. 
His  forgiving  and  charitable  disposition,  his  candor  and 
high  sense  of  justice,  commanded  the  admiration  of  all 
who  came  in  contact  with  him.  His  devotion  to  religion 
and  his  exemplary  Christian  deportment  on  all  occasions 
and  under  all  circumstances  marked  his  life  as  one  pre- 
eminently worthy  of  emulation. 

While  we  recognize  the  ability  of  the  home  circle  and 
nearest  friends  to  know  the  deceased  best,  and  to  judge 
of  his  virtues  by  that  home  life  and  daily  acquaintance 
which  reveal  the  true  character  and  motives  of  human 
kind,  we  of  the  South,  co-workers  and  intimate  friends 
of  Mr.  Greene,  bear  to  them  the  testimony  of  his  upright 
noble  life  spent  from  time  to  time  with  us,  and  of  the  per- 
sonal sorrow  we  feel  at  his  untimely  death. 

To-day  we  mourn  his  death  with  Eastern  friends,  in  all 
our  hearts  tenderest  love  and  deepest  sympathy.  Our  tears 
mingle  with  theirs  in  sincere  feeling,  as  we  offer  our  tribute 


1 70  STEPHEN    GREENE 

to  the  worth  and  character  of  our  mutual  friend,  whose 
memory  and  virtues  we  all  wish  to  commemorate. 

While  in  his  native  land  rests  all  that  is  mortal  of  Stephen 
Greene,  marked  by  the  memorial  shaft,  in  our  hearts  the 
broken  column  is  erected,  ever  to  remind  us  that  in  our 
industrial  building  and  in  our  spiritual  house  one  of  our 
principal  supports  and  truest  friends  has  fallen. 

JOHN  C.  GARY. 
LOCKHART,  S.  C.,  November  16,  1901. 

YOUNG  WOMEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION,  BOSTON 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Boston  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association,  held  Monday,  December  2d, 
it  was  voted : 

"That  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Stephen  Greene,  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.  has  lost  an  able  and  generous  friend,  and 
that  the  sympathy  of  the  association  be  extended  to  the 
sorrowing  family. 

" SUSAN  H.  BRONSON,  Secretary  Pro  Tern" 

FIRST  BAPTIST  CHURCH  IN  NEWTON 

MINUTE  ADOPTED  NOVEMBER   22,    I  90  I 

With  inexpressible  grief  and  in  humble  submission  to 
the  inscrutable  wisdom  and  holy  will  of  God,  the  First 
Baptist  Church  in  Newton  records  the  death  of  our  brother 
Stephen  Greene. 

Uniting  with  our  church  by  letter  in  1890,  he  enthroned 
himself  in  the  confidence  and  love  of  all  the  membership. 
He  was  chosen  deacon,  and  twice  chosen  superintendent 
of  the  Bible  school.  He  was  serving  in  these  high  offices 
at  the  time  of  his  death.  Like  the  officer  of  the  early 


RESOLUTIONS    AND    LETTERS      171 

church  whose  name  he  bore,  Stephen  Greene  was  a  man  of 
honest  report,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  wisdom;  a  man  full 
of  faith  and  power,  he  wrought  splendidly  among  the  people. 

For  eleven  years  he  worked  among  us.  We  knew  his 
conversation,  his  manner  of  life,  his  purpose,  his  patience 
of  hope.  His  charity  was  out  of  a  pure  heart,  his  faith 
unfeigned.  He  lived  a  righteous  and  godly  life,  blameless, 
vigilant,  patient,  apt  to  teach,  faithful  in  all  things.  He 
was  an  example  to  believers,  in  word,  in  conversation,  in 
love,  in  spirit,  in  faith,  in  purity.  As  a  man  of  God  he 
followed  after  righteousness,  godliness,  faith,  love,  patience, 
meekness. 

He  fought  the  good  fight  of  faith,  laid  hold  on  eternal 
life.  He  was  not  high-minded,  nor  did  he  trust  in  uncer- 
tain riches,  but  in  the  living  God  who  gave  him  all  things 
richly  to  enjoy.  He  did  good,  was  rich  in  good  works, 
ready  to  distribute,  willing  to  communicate. 

Strong  in  the  grace  which  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  he 
endured  hardness  as  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
was  a  vessel  unto  honor,  sanctified,  meet  for  the  Master's 
use,  prepared  unto  every  good  work.  He  continued  in  the 
things  which  he  had  learned,  and  had  been  assured  of, 
knowing  of  whom  he  had  learned  them.  A  lover  of  God's 
word,  he  found  it  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for 
correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness. 

Instant  in  season,  out  of  season,  in  all  things  showing 
himself  a  pattern  of  good  works,  rejoicing  in  hope,  patient 
in  tribulation,  continuing  instant  in  prayer.  As  he  abounded 
in  everything,  in  faith  and  utterance  and  knowledge  and  in 
all  diligence,  and  in  his  love  for  us,  he  abounded  in  the  grace 
of  giving  also. 

So  he  lived  and  labored  among  us  until  the  end.      He 


172  STEPHEN   GREENE 

presided  over  the  sessions  of  the  Bible  school  for  the  last 
time  upon  Sunday,  November  3d.  The  last  church  service 
which  he  attended  was  the  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
upon  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day. 

He  was  granted  an  abundant  entrance  into  the  presence 
of  his  Lord,  Thursday  morning,  November  7,  1901. 

The  memory  of  the  just  is  blessed. 

EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE,  NEWTON  THEOLOGICAL 
INSTITUTION 

The  executive  committee  of  the  Newton  Theological 
Institution,  representing  the  trustees,  and  in  their  behalf, 
have  heard  with  profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of  Mr. 
Stephen  Greene,  who  passed  away  in  the  early  morning 
of  November  7th;  and  they  would  put  upon  record  their 
tribute  of  esteem  and  affection. 

He  has  been  a  most  useful  aud  valuable  man  in  his 
relation  to  the  institution,  as  he  has  been  in  connection 
with  so  many  other  noble  causes  of  denominational  and 
religious  work.  He  was  chairman  of  the  endowment  com- 
mittee and  of  the  committee  on  buildings  and  grounds. 
He  had  successfully  carried  through  one  effort  to  increase 
the  endowment  of  the  institution,  and  was  deeply  engaged 
in  the  one  now  in  progress. 

The  new  buildings  of  late  years,  and  the  improvements 
on  Farwell  Hall,  are  the  almost  direct  results  of  his  skill 
and  energy  and  devotion.  All  this  has  been  done  with 
such  a  spirit  of  devotion  and  cheerfulness  as  to  move  all 
interested  to  a  feeling  of  gratitude  for  such  a  tireless  and 
willing  helper  and  counselor. 

It  is  no  wonder  our  president,  Mr.  William  A.  Munroe, 
was  moved  to  say,  very  tenderly,  that  he  felt  he  has  largely 


RESOLUTIONS   AND   LETTERS      173 

given  his  life  to  us  and  for  us,  and  that  he  felt  him  to  be 
such  a  realization  of  Paul's  grace  of  charity  as  was  seen 
in  scarcely  any  other  man  whom  he  had  ever  known. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  courage  and  confidence,  and  had 
the  rare  tact  of  inspiring  others  with  something  like  his  own 
great  spirit  of  hope.  His  death  seems  an  irreparable  loss  to 
the  institution.  He  took  to  his  heart  all  the  interests  of  its 
endowment  and  progress.  His  gifts  have  been  laid  upon 
its  altar.  His  faith  has  been  inwrought  into  its  life.  Its 
growth  has  been  one  of  his  cherished  dreams. 

N.  E.  WOOD, 
C.  H.  SPALDING, 
R.  O.  FULLER. 
BOSTON,  November  8,  1901. 

AMERICAN  BAPTIST  HOME  MISSION  SOCIETY 

The  executive  board  of  the  American  Baptist  Home 
Mission  Society  is  filled  with  profound  sorrow  over  the 
sudden  death  of  Stephen  Greene,  Esq.,  of  Newton  Centre, 
Mass.,  who  for  three  years  was  vice-president  of  the  society, 
and  for  three  years  thereafter,  until  1900,  was  its  president, 
fulfilling  the  duties  of  this  position  with  rare  grace  and 
ability.  By  his  lively  interest  in  the  society's  affairs,  as 
well  as  by  the  marked  excellences  of  his  manly  Christian 
character,  he  won  for  himself  a  large  place  in  the  love  and 
respect  of  the  society  and  of  his  brethren  at  large.  While 
we  cannot  interpret  the  inscrutable  Providence  which  has 
transferred  him  in  the  prime  of  his  power  from  this  to  a 
higher  sphere,  we  find  consolation  and  inspiration  in  his 
noble  record  of  Christian  service,  which  in  many  ways  has 
contributed  largely  to  the  advancement  of  our  denomina- 
tional interests,  and  to  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom 


174  STEPHEN    GREENE 

of  Christ  in  the  world.     To  the  members  of  his  family, 
and  to  his  kindred,  the  society,  through  this  board,  extends 
its  heartfelt  sympathy  in  their  great  bereavement. 
NEW  YORK,  November  n,  1901. 

BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES,  SPELMAN  SEMINARY 

MRS.  STEPHEN  GREENE: 

Dear  Madame — In  the  great  bereavement  which  has 
come  to  you  in  the  loss  of  your  husband,  you  undoubtedly 
find  some  consolation  in  the  many  expressions  received  of 
appreciation  of  his  noble  character  and  his  Christian  ser- 
vice. Permit  me  to  add  thereto,  as  president  of  the  board  of 
trustees  of  Spelman  Seminary,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  an  expression 
of  the  regard  in  which  he  was  held  by  representatives  of 
that  institution,  and  of  their  sympathy  with  you  in  your 
sorrow.  It  was  adopted  on  Sunday  evening,  November 
i  jth,  at  the  close  of  a  series  of  meetings  commemorating  the 
twentieth  anniversary  of  the  institution,  and  is  as  follows : 

"  The  faculty,  members  of  the  board  of  trustees,  and 
friends  of  Spelman  Seminary,  gathered  at  the  observance 
of  the  twentieth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  insti- 
tution, deeply  mourn  the  loss  by  death  of  Stephen  Greene, 
Esq.,  of  Newton  Centre,  Mass.,  a  warm  friend  of  the 
seminary,  a  member  of  its  board  of  trustees,  and  late 
president  of  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society, 
and  held  in  highest  esteem  by  all ;  and  we  extend  our  heart- 
felt sympathy  to  his  bereaved  family  and  relatives  in  their 
great  sorrow,  praying  Divine  consolation  and  strength  may 
be  theirs  abundantly  in  this  hour  of  trial." 
Sincerely  yours, 

H.  L.  MOREHOUSE,  Field  Secretary. 
NEW  YORK,  November  21,  1901. 


RESOLUTIONS    AND   LETTERS      175 
ALVAH  HOVEY 

Formerly  President  of  the  Newton  Theological  Institution 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  GREENE: 

My  heart  and  my  thoughts  have  been  with  you  all  the 
day.  I  should  have  ventured  to  call  had  I  not  been  sure 
that  no  words  of  mine  could  diminish  the  sorrow  you  feel  at 
the  loss  of  your  noble  husband. 

He  was  to  me  an  ideal  man  and  Christian.  I  do  not 
remember  a  single  word  or  act  in  my  intercourse  with  him 
for  many  years  that  did  not  commend  him  to  my  heart  as  a 
brother  indeed;  "An  Israelite  in  whom  there  was  no  guile." 
How  can  we  give  him  up?  How  can  we  do  without  his 
royal  cheer  and  helpfulness?  He  ought  to  have  lived  a 
hundred  years,  and  to  have  had  the  strength  of  a  dozen 
men !  So  I  am  inclined  to  say.  Yet  our  Lord  was  only 
a  young  man  when  his  hour  came.  He  had  already  "fin- 
ished" his  work.  Let  us  humbly  trust  his  wisdom  and 
love !  "  God  is  his  own  interpreter,  and  he  will  make 

it  plain." 

Most  truly  your  friend  in  sorrow, 

ALVAH  HOVEY. 
NEWTON  CENTRE,  November  7,  1901. 

CHARLES  RUFUS  BROWN 

Professor  in  the  Newton  Theological  Institution 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  GREENE: 

I  know  that  you  will  not  consider  it  an  intrusion,  if  I 
tell  you  that  I  have  just  come  from  a  little  service  on  the 
hill,  appointed  in  memory  of  your  dear  husband.  Professor 
Anderson  prayed,  President  Wood  spoke  of  Mr.  Greene  in 
his  relation  to  the  institution,  Professor  English  in  the 


176  STEPHEN    GREENE 

wider  relation  of  the  kingdom,  and  I,  brokenly,  of  his  influ- 
ence in  the  home,  church,  and  community.  Bowed  down 
with  our  sense  of  loss,  we  can  yet  rise  from  it  all,  and  from 
your  deeper  grief,  and  with  you  we  can  contemplate  the 
glory  of  the  consecrated  Christian  manhood  at  its  best.  I 
am  glad  that  the  same  Christian  hope  is  yours  and  ours. 
From  the  depth  of  sorrow,  we  look  to  our  Saviour  with  open 
face,  rejoiced  that  we  may  turn  over  to  him  one  so  nearly 
like  himself. 

Faithfully  yours, 

CHARLES  RUFUS  BROWN. 
NEWTON  CENTRE,  MASS.,  November  9,  1901. 

W.  W.  LANDRUM 

Pastor  First  Baptist  Church,   Atlanta,  Georgia 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  GREENE: 

My  heart  seemed  to  stand  still  with  a  sudden  shock 
when  I  learned  only  yesterday  that  your  noble  husband 
had  departed  to  his  heavenly  reward. 

Receive  a  brother's  sympathy  and  prayer.  Words  are 
weak  mediums  of  expression  for  what  I  feel;  but  I  beg 
to  say  that  I  have  never  known  a  character  more  lovable 
or  freer  from  faults  than  that  of  Stephen  Greene.  His  church 
and  community,  and  the  Baptist  brotherhood  throughout 
America  have  sustained  a  grievous  loss  by  his  translation 
to  the  church  above. 

May  the  Lord  have  you  and  yours  in  his  tender  care 
and  keeping.  Cordially  and  truly  yours, 

W.  W.  LANDRUM. 
ATLANTA,  GEORGIA,  November  12,  1901. 


RESOLUTIONS    AND    LETTERS      177 

JOHN  H.  MONTGOMERY 
DEAR  MRS.  GREENE: 

I  have  wanted  to  write  you  in  addition  to  what  I  have 
already  written  the  office  to  add  with  your  many  friends 
my  testimony  of  real,  heartfelt  sympathy.  The  death  of  no 
one  outside  of  my  own  family  shocked  me  more,  or  has 
recurred  oftener  to  my  mind  in  the  same  space  of  time 
than  that  of  Mr.  Greene. 

He  was  one  I  had  never  associated  with  death;  but  as 
living  dispensing  influence  and  doing  good.  My  acquaint- 
ance with  him  commenced  nearly  twenty  years  ago,  and 
during  that  time  I  never  saw  a  single  act  unworthy  of  a  Chris- 
tian gentleman  of  the  highest  type.  He  was  one  who  lived 
his  religion  at  home  and  from  home;  in  prosperity  and 
adversity  always  the  same.  The  world  is  better  that  he 
lived  in  it;  his  noble  character  and  example  will  live  on 
well  worthy  imitation  of  all  who  knew  him. 

In  him  I  had  a  real  friend,  and  I  do  and  shall  sorely 
miss  him;  but  the  all-wise  God  of  the  universe  doeth  all 
things  well.  You  and  I  and  all  others  must  meekly  bow 
to  the  will  of  Him  who  made  us. 

My  wife  joins  me  in  sympathy  for  you  in  this  your 
saddest  bereavement.  May  God  help  you  and  your  boys 
to  bear  it.  Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  H.  MONTGOMERY. 
SPARTANBURG,  S.  C.,  November  30,  1901. 

R.  S.  MACARTHUR 

Pastor  Calvary  Baptist  Church,  New  York 

MY  DEAR  MRS.  GREENE: 

I  learned  with  equal  surprise  and  sorrow  of  the  death 
of  your  noble  husband.  His  death  is  a  loss  to  every  denom- 


i78  STEPHEN    GREENE 

inational  interest,  and  to  every  good  cause  in  every  part  of  the 
country.  I  have  no  words  adequate  to  express  the  sorrow 
which  I  feel.  He  was  one  of  the  gentlest,  truest,  and  alto- 
gether most  genuine  of  men  I  ever  knew.  My  acquaintance 
with  him  began  when  your  residence  was  in  Rhode  Island, 
and  the  riper  it  became  the  more  honored  and  beloved  did 
he  become  in  my  judgment  and  affection.  Both  at  your 
table  in  your  home  and  at  my  table  in  my  home  he  was 
the  genial  gentleman,  the  noble  Christian,  and  the  loving 
brother. 

The  loss  to  you  and  your  children  is  simply  irreparable. 
My  wife  and  I  have  not  ceased  to  think  of  and  pray  for  you 
since  we  learned  of  your  bereavement.  We  commend  you 
to  the  God  of  all  comfort,  and  pray  that  He  may  graciously 
guide  you  and  yours,  and  give  you  grace  according  to  His 
promise  in  our  common  Lord. 

Sincerely  yours, 

R.  S.  MACARTHUR. 
NEW  YORK,  December  2,  1901. 

GEORGE  E.  MERRILL 

President  Colgate  University,  Hamilton,  New  York 

Stephen  Greene  was  a  wonder  to  me.  How  could  he 
be  what  he  was;  how  could  he  do  so  much?  Neighbors  in 
Newton,  thrown  together  in  the  work  of  the  Newton  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  and  having  many  common  interests  in 
the  life  around  us,  we  were  frequently  together,  and  often 
for  long  consultations  upon  important  matters.  I  was 
always  impressed  by  his  wisdom,  by  his  common  sense. 
When  his  judgment  was  against  mine,  I  was  accustomed 
to  review  my  position  very  carefully;  when  it  was  with 
mine,  I  felt  very  strong  indeed.  In  all  practical  affairs 


RESOLUTIONS    AND    LETTERS      179 

he  was  most  efficient,  and  I  could  feel  sure  that  his  quick 
appreciation  of  advantages  to  be  gained  or  lost  by  any  pro- 
posed course  would  save  us,  as  it  often  did,  from  serious 
error.  In  all  his  great  work,  too,  he  was  cheerful. 

His  face  was  an  inspiration,  his  form  was  an  encourage- 
ment. If  you  saw  him  walk  you  said,  "  There  is  a  man  alert 
and  strong."  And  never  was  this  impression  belied  by  any 
weakness  in  counsel.  His  thought  was  accurate,  his  advice 
was  good,  his  leadership  was  inspiring.  Many  things  were 
brought  to  pass  largely  through  his  enterprise  and  persist- 
ence, where  weaker  men  would  have  been  discouraged. 

GEORGE  E.  MERRILL. 
HAMILTON,  NEW  YORK.,  December  8,  1901. 

As  CHAIRMAN  OF  THE  COMMISSION  ON  CO-ORDINATION 

It  was  most  natural  that  in  the  organization  of  the 
Commission  on  Co-ordination  Mr.  Stephen  Greene  should 
be  made  chairman.  He  had  rare  personal  qualifications  for 
the  position,  and  his  address  at  Detroit,  as  president  of  the 
Home  Mission  Society,  had  led  to  the  appointment  of  the 
commission.  The  place  was  not  without  its  difficulties; 
we  did  not  all  see  eye  to  eye.  Some  felt  that  many  radical 
changes  ought  to  be  made;  others  favored  some  slight  modi- 
fications of  existing  policy;  still  others  were  persuaded  that 
the  thing  to  do  was  to  do  nothing.  The  sessions  were 
long  and  trying,  and  the  discussion  sometimes  became 
exceedingly  earnest.  With  a  man  less  wise  and  concil- 
iatory in  the  chair,  serious  friction  might  easily  have  de- 
veloped. With  rare  skill  Mr.  Greene  guided  the  deliberations 
over  sand-bars  and  around  dangerous  reefs,  by  his  example 
provoking  all  members  of  the  commission  to  urbanity  and 
kindliness  in  speech  and  action. 


i8o  STEPHEN    GREENE 

Mr.  Greene  illustrated  the  beauty  of  speaking  the  truth 
in  love.  He  held  decided  opinions  upon  the  questions  under 
discussion,  and  expressed  his  views  with  perfect  frankness. 
His  was  the  point  of  view  of  the  Christian  business  man. 
He  saw  no  reason  why  the  business  of  the  kingdom  should 
not  be  conducted  with  the  same  careful  attention  to  economy 
in  administration  that  characterizes  great  secular  enterprises. 
The  very  best  methods  were  none  too  good  for  the  work 
of  the  world's  redemption.  He  said  what  was  in  his  heart, 
and  spoke  with  a  clearness  which  left  no  doubt  as  to  his 
meaning;  but  his  speech  contained  no  indictment  of  the 
honesty  of  his  brethren  who  differed  with  him,  and  was 
free  from  all  suspicion  of  bitterness. 

It  is  not  easy  to  put  into  words  the  charm  of  his  person- 
ality. In  his  presence  the  world  seemed  brighter,  the  Chris- 
tian life  more  real  and  valuable;  and,  involuntarily,  we 
became  possessed  with  an  increased  hopefulness.  He  was 
so  vital  that  he  imparted  vitality;  so  sunny  of  face  and  heart 
that  despondency  and  gloom  fled  from  his  presence.  The 
commission  has  passed  into  history;  but  its  members  will 
never  forget  the  manly  man  whose  presence  was  a  bene- 
diction, and  whose  memory  we  love. 

L.  A.  CRANDALL, 
Pastor  of  Memorial  Baptist  Church,  Chicago. 

EDWARD  JUDSON 

Pastor  of  Memorial  Baptist  Church,  New  York 

His  genial  and  disinterested  personality  left  a  very  definite 
impression  on  my  mind.  I  have  seldom  met  a  man  who 
seemed  so  devoted  to  the  comfort  and  happiness  of  others; 
and  when  I  think  how  deeply  I  feel  his  loss,  who  knew  him 


RESOLUTIONS    AND   LETTERS       181 

only  a  little,  I  can  form  some  idea  of  the  depth  of  sorrow 
through  which  those  are  passing  who  were  closely  related 
to  that  generous  nature. 

EDWARD  JUDSON. 

My  remembrance  of  him  is  that  of  a  June  day,  full 
of  fragrance,  light,  song. 

O.  P.   GlFFORD,  D.  D. 

My  home  is  directly  across  the  street  from  his  earthly 
home;  and  we  have  communed  together  in  these  years 
of  his  residence  here  in  great  intimacy  and  enjoyment. 
A  great  grief  has  plowed  its  way  into  our  hearts  by  his 
sudden  and  unexpected  going There  must  be  a  lov- 
ing Ruler  of  human  destinies  who  has  inspired  one  of  His 
sons  to  live  such  a  stainless,  useful,  devoted  life  as  that 
of  Stephen  Greene,  and  we  will  not  complain,  though 
tears  will  fall,  that  the  Master  has  said,  "  Come  up  higher." 
With  sincerest  sympathy  and  in  undying  affection  for  Saint 
Stephen,  as  I  call  him,  I  am,  yours  fraternally, 

W.  E.  HUNTINGTON, 

Dean  of  Boston  University. 

I  am  still  trying  to  get  my  mind  to  accept  the  stern  fact 
that  my  friend  and  brother,  the  princely  Christian  man, 
the  noble  character  and  denominational  leader,  is  dead. 
He  was  too  vital  and  real  and  forceful  for  us  easily  to  accept 
the  fact.  Yet,  who  so  ready  for  any  call  as  he  ?  I  never 
knew  him  to  turn  away  from  God's  call  for  anything. 
I  am  sure  he  was  equally  ready  when  the  final  sum- 
mons came.  E.  Y.  MULLINS, 

President  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary. 


182  STEPHEN    GREENE 

FROM  THE  WATCHMAN,  BOSTON 

The  following  editorial  appeared  in  "The  Watch- 
man "  of  Boston,  Mass.,  November  14,  1901  : 

Occasionally,  but  very  rarely,  we  meet  a  man  in  whose 
personality  there  seems  to  be  enshrined  a  ray  of  light  from 
other  spheres.  That  is  the  impression  Stephen  Greene 
made  on  many  men.  An  acquaintance  and  friendship 
dating  back  to  college  days,  extending  over  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  may  distort  our  perception  of  his 
rare  qualities,  but  we  are  inclined  to  think  that  this  long 
association  would  reveal  defects  and  limitations  that  we 
do  not  find  in  our  memory  of  him.  Always  he  gave  the 
impression  of  light  and  peace  that  sprang  from  a  fountain 
in  his  inner  life.  Mr.  Greene  was  one  of  the  most  success- 
ful professional  and  business  men  that  Boston  has  recently 
produced.  Without  any  capital  but  his  own  character  and 
education,  he  had  risen  to  a  foremost  position  as  an  architect 
for  great  industrial  concerns.  He  had  the  insight  to  discern 
the  tendencies  of  economical  changes,  and  he  had  the 
courage  of  his  convictions. 

Mr.  Greene  had  a  unique  capacity  of  inspiring  con- 
fidence in  his  simple,  direct  statements.  Men  felt  intui- 
tively that  there  was  a  wholesome  personality  and  a  sound 
character  behind  them.  His  outline  of  the  possibilities 
of  a  situation  made  them  probabilities,  and  his  sanguine  fore- 
cast was  so  governed  by  experience  and  good  judgment  that 
his  advice  was  always  worth  following.  Great  corporations 
came  to  understand  this,  and  the  plans  of  Stephen  Greene 
came  to  be  adopted  with  the  minimum  of  discussion. 

He  carried  these  same  qualities  into  his  distinctively 
Christian  activities.  In  the  churches  at  Providence,  New- 


RESOLUTIONS    AND    LETTERS      183 

buryport  and  Newton  Centre,  of  which  he  was  successively 
a  member,  his  perception  of  conditions  and  possibilities, 
his  optimistic  outlook,  his  genial  temperament,  his  open- 
handed  liberality,  and  his  serene  confidence  in  the  triumph 
of  spiritual  forces  made  him  a  power  of  the  first  order. 
A  church  with  one  man  in  it  like  Stephen  Greene  would 
always  be  influential  in  its  community. 

He  was  a  rare  man  and  we  thank  God  for  him.  As  we 
recall  that  tall  and  manly  form,  that  bright  and  inspiring 
countenance,  that  hopeful  tone,  and  remember  all  that  he 
accomplished  and  purposed  to  do,  and  realize  that  he  had 
barely  turned  fifty,  we  cannot  understand  his  death;  but 
there  are  no  unfinished  pillars  in  God's  temple. 

FROM  THE  STANDARD,  CHICAGO 

The  word  came  without  warning  to  his  friends  and  his 
brother  in  Chicago  that  he  had  been  taken  dangerously  ill 
on  November  6th;  and  before  the  morning  he  had  passed 
away.  Although  Mr.  Greene  had  found  it  necessary  during 
the  past  year  to  lessen  somewhat  the  strain  of  his  large  and 
engrossing  business  by  a  vacation  trip  in  Europe,  he  seemed 
the  picture  of  health.  His  fine  physique  seemed  to  have 
survived  unharmed  the  wear  and  tear  of  thirty  years  of  busy 
and  often  exhausting  labor  at  his  profession,  and  at  the  age 
of  fifty  he  doubtless  looked  forward  to  another  twenty  years 
of  life  in  which  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  success.  The 
wife,  the  two  boys  just  entering  manhood,  the  younger  sons, 
seemed  to  need  him  more  than  ever  before.  His  many 
friends  needed  him.  The  denominational  and  educational 
interests  with  which  he  was  connected  needed  his  wise 
counsel  and  patient  assistance.  But  he  is  gone. 


1 84  STEPHEN    GREENE 

When  he  made  his  home  at  Newton  Centre,  he  became 
at  once  a  leader  in  the  life  of  the  First  Church  there,  as  he 
had  been  in  Providence  and  Newburyport.  The  pastors  of 
that  church  during  his  residence  there — Dr.  L.  C.  Barnes, 
the  late  Richard  Montague,  Dr.  E.  Y.  Mullins,  and  Rev. 
E.  D.  Burr  —  looked  to  him  for  encouragement  and  prac- 
tical assistance  in  every  good  work.  Particularly  in  the 
Sunday  school  was  his  sunny  smile,  his  rich,  musical  voice, 
his  persistent  optimism,  attractive.  Everybody  liked  Mr. 
Greene.  Children  were  fond  of  him.  The  trustees  and 
faculty  of  the  Newton  Theological  Institution  found  in 
him  a  wise  counselor  and  a  generous  giver.  In  all  plans 
for  the  material  improvement  of  the  buildings  and  grounds 
on  "  the  hill  "  his  expert  knowledge  was  freely  given.  The 
students  often  found  encouragement  and  help  in  his  hos- 
pitable home.  More  than  one  young  man  will  remember 
all  his  life  the  handshake  and  the  cheery  greeting  of  this 
Christian  gentleman  bestowed — though  he  knew  it  not  — 
in  some  critical  hour  of  perplexity  or  depression.  He  was 
so  manly  that  any  unmanly  impulse  to  shirk  or  to  deceive 
or  to  grumble  seemed  impossible  in  his  presence. 

Beyond  the  circle  of  the  church  and  the  city  his  worth 
soon  became  known,  and  the  larger  denominational  enter- 
prises profited  by  his  advice  and  assistance.  He  was  elected 
president  of  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society 
in  1897  at  Pittsburg,  and  presided  at  the  anniversaries  in 
Rochester  and  Detroit.  At  Detroit  he  uttered  radical  words, 
appealing  for  a  better  understanding  and  co-operation  among 
all  denominational  forces — a  cutting  through  of  avenues,  a 
rounding  off  of  corners,  a  straightening  out  of  the  map  in 
order  that  short  cuts  and  easy  roads  might  be  made  possible 
in  doing  the  work  of  the  denomination.  And  he  was,  as 


RESOLUTIONS    AND    LETTERS      185 

our  readers  will  remember,  a  leading  spirit  among  laymen 
in  the  movement  for  co-ordination,  presenting  last  spring  at 
Springfield  the  report  of  the  committee  recommending  vari- 
ous specific  changes  in  the  missionary  methods  of  the  socie- 
ties to  bring  them  more  completely  into  harmony.  In 
rendering  this  service  he  encountered  differences  of  opinion 
and  criticisms  which  must  have  been  most  distasteful  to 
a  man  so  genial  and  fond  of  good  feeling  as  he ;  but  he 
kept  steadfastly  to  his  course,  believing  it  to  be  for  the  best 
good  of  all  that  changes  should  be  made.  Time  alone  can 
show  the  full  result  of  his  faithful  performance  of  this 
somewhat  unpleasant  task. 

Mr.  Greene's  home  life  has  been  peculiarly  happy.  He 
was  married,  in  1874,  to  Miss  Natalia  Schubarth  of  Provi- 
dence, who  with  four  sons  survive  him.  His  brother,  Dr. 
Benjamin  A.  Greene,  formerly  of  Lynn,  now  pastor  in 
Evanston,  111.,  is  deeply  bereaved  by  the  crushing  shock 
of  this  sudden  bereavement,  and  to  him,  as  to  all  the  rela- 
tives, we  extend  heartfelt  sympathy. 

FROM   THE   EXAMINER,   NEW  YORK 

Considered  from  several  points  of  view,  the  life  of  Mr. 
Greene  was  seen  to  be  one  of  rare  Christian  symmetry  and 
broad  activities.  From  the  South,  where  he  had  become 
well  known  as  one  of  its  "  captains  of  industry "  in  its 
cotton  manufactures,  testimonials  of  the  esteem  in  which 
he  was  held  were  received ;  and  Spelman  Seminary,  of  which 
he  was  a  trustee,  at  the  commemoration  of  its  twentieth  anni- 
versary sent  its  message  of  sorrow  and  sympathy.  The  loss 
of  high-minded,  broad-minded,  public -spirited  men  like 
Mr.  Greene  leaves  a  vacancy  not  easily  filled.  Not  merely 
New  England  but  the  whole  country  feels  his  loss.  He 


186  STEPHEN    GREENE 

will  be  greatly  missed  also  in  our  denominational  affairs, 
in  missions  at  home  and  abroad,  and  in  educational  enter- 
prises, which  were  substantially  promoted  by  his  forceful- 
ness  and  his  contagious  enthusiasm.  Verily,  at  the  meridian 
of  his  powers,  when  but  fifty  years  of  age,  a  prince  in  Israel 
has  fallen. 

FROM   THE   NEWTON   CIRCUIT 

In  "The  Newton  Circuit"  of  November  8th 
appeared  the  following: 

STEPHEN  GREENE 

Entered  into  rest  November  7,  1901 
An  Appreciation 

He  had  such  abundant  life  it  is  impossible  to  think 
of  him  as  dead.  He  was  such  a  great  shaft  of  golden 
light  one  could  not  think  of  the  shadows,  least  of  all 
the  shadow  of  death.  It  was  the  noonday  of  his  career; 
he  was  seeing  the  fulfillment  of  early  hopes  in  enlarged 
opportunities  of  usefulness.  The  full-orbed  splendor  of  mid- 
day has  no  suggestion  in  it  of  night.  We  thought  we  should 
long  enjoy  the  sunshine  of  his  presence.  He  was  so  great 
the  longer  years  seemed  necessary  to  afford  him  adequate 
expression.  He  was  so  good  it  seemed  as  though  a  good 
God  must  enjoy  leaving  him  in  the  world  he  was  endeavor- 
ing to  save.  He  was  so  generous  he  seemed  to  claim  an 
unending  day  in  which  to  bestow  the  best  gifts  of  his  love. 
His  heart-beat  was  an  echo  of  the  pulse  of  a  greater  love. 
"What  a  beautiful  morning,"  some  one  said  this  morning, 
and  another  answered,  "  How  could  it  be  anything  else  with 
his  radiant  life  above  the  stars?  " 

He   was   a   man   of   unusual    mind  —  sensitive,   alert, 


RESOLUTIONS   AND   LETTERS      187 

of  quick  perception.  Everything  that  was  worthy  of  a  wel- 
come found  recognition  in  his  thought.  His  native  gifts 
were  splendidly  trained  in  school  and  college,  disciplined 
in  the  curriculum  of  life,  perfected  in  the  experience 
of  maturer  years. 

His  mastery  of  his  special  science  did  not  disqualify 
him  for  the  appreciation  of  worth  in  other  lines  of  study. 
His  intellectual  sympathies  were  remarkable.  Mr.  Greene 
was  a  helpful  spirit  in  every  enterprise  with  which  he 
had  to  do.  Every  one  who  knew  him  felt  his  friendli- 
ness. As  gentle  as  a  woman,  he  cared  for  a  friend  who 
was  sick;  strong  with  exhaustless  love,  he  included  the 
widest  reaches  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  his  sympathetic 
interest. 

He  had  an  inviolate  conscience.  As  his  mind  welcomed 
only  that  which  was  white  and  high,  his  heart  loved  only 
what  was  good  and  pure,  his  conscience  could  approve 
only  what  was  true  and  right. 

That  which  was  unwise  or  questionable  should  never 
be  done;  but  what  was  essentially  and  absolutely  right 
should  be  done,  could  be  done,  indeed  must  be  done;  and 
the  great,  good  man  could  riot  understand  why  any  one 
should  ever  hesitate  to  undertake  the  right,  even  if  it 
involved  difficulty  or  cost  or  both. 

His  conscience  was  imperial  and  regnant  in  every  rela- 
tion of  life.  He  was  one  mill  architect  who  would  never 
accept  inducements  to  recommend  a  particular  machine 
for  a  mill  he  was  building.  He  studied  the  interests  of  his 
clients,  and  considered  their  confidence  his  most  sacred 
trust.  Everything  that  went  into  the  mill  must  stand 
upon  its  essential  merits.  Makers  of  machinery  would 
have  paid  generously  for  a  first  place  on  the  list  of  Lock- 


i88  STEPHEN    GREENE 

wood,  Greene  &  Co.,  but  they  could  get  there  only  by  mak- 
ing the  best  machine.  He  could  have  enriched  himself  in 
thousands,  if  in  his  business  career  he  had  allowed  him- 
self to  do  the  things  which  an  ordinary  business  custom 
approves. 

He  was  a  moral  vertebrate.  His  executive  force  was 
always  at  the  maximum  because  he  was  in  the  right.  He 
could  concentrate  his  powers  upon  every  task  because 
none  were  wasted  in  the  friction  of  adjustment.  He  had 
a  divine  enthusiasm  because  of  a  triumphant  faith.  He 
believed  God;  the  right  would  surely  prevail.  His  optimism 
was  unconquerable.  He  believed  the  best  to  be  always  pos- 
sible, and  sought  to  make  it  actual.  He  is  not  dead;  such 
a  man  can  never  die:  "He  that  doeth  the  will  of  God 
abideth  forever." 

EVERETT  D.  BURR, 
Pastor  First  Baptist  Church,  Newton  Centre. 


PRINTED  BY  R.  R.  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY,  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE  PRESS,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


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